FurBall Malware

The FurBall Malware is a newly identified threat, which seems to be employed exclusively in attacks against Iranian dissidents and figures who oppose the political regime in the country. The likely cybercrime organization behind the FurBall Malware is called 'Domestic Kitten' – the criminals are believed to have close ties to the Iranian government, and many of their past campaigns were focused against citizens of Iran.

Experts believe that the FurBall Malware might have attempted to infect over 1,000 devices in the country. The dissidents that the criminals go after include journalists, lawyers, activities, and members of various non-profit organizations.

The corrupted FurBall implant is distributed via text messages, fake social media pages, legitimate Iranian Web pages and telegram channels. The threat goes after Android devices exclusively, and it specializes in surveillance and data theft. Some of its core features are:

• Collect call logs, text messages and contacts.
• Record audio via the microphone.
• Recor calls.
• Collect files and media.
• Grab GPS coordinates.

While the FurBall Malware is the product of a highly-skilled cybercrime organization, its attacks are preventable by using top-of-the-shelf Android anti-virus products.