Arsink Spyware Posing as WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok Hits 143 Countries

Researchers at Zimperium zLabs have identified Arsink, a dangerous Android Trojan that impersonates 50+ popular brands, including WhatsApp and TikTok. With over 45,000 victims across 143 countries, this malware grants hackers complete remote control to record audio, read text messages, and wipe devices.

A massive new spying operation has been caught targeting Android users across 143 countries. The malware, known as Arsink, is what experts call a Remote Access Trojan (RAT). The team at zLabs (part of the security firm Zimperium) discovered the threat after finding 1,216 unique versions of the malicious software.

The ‘Pro’ App Trap

The interesting thing about this campaign is that hackers are not using the official Google Play Store to spread this, but posting links on Telegram and Discord or using the file-sharing site MediaFire.

As zLabs researchers explained in their detailed blog post, shared with Hackread.com, this is a rather simple ...