The Ministry of National Security is alerting the Ghanaian public on the discovery of new malicious malware embedded in WhatsApp and Telegram modifications for Android devices.

In a statement addressed to the Minister of Communications [Ursula Owusu-Ekuful], the malware was discovered after a research was conducted by Kaspersky, a multinational cybersecurity firm.

The firm is said to have discovered that the new malware is stealing sensitive information from WhatsApp and Telegram users for Android devices.

The malware, according to Kaspersky, is called ‘CanesSpy’ which is coded in Arabic and Azerbaijani and has the potential to steal sensitive information such as International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), phone number, mobile country code, mobile network code and details about the victim’s contacts and accounts every five (5) minutes.

“Meanwhile, Meta, WhatsApp’s parent company has filed a lawsuit against three (3) developers in China and Taiwan, for distributing unofficial WhatsApp applications, including HeyMods, that compromised over one million user accounts,” the National Security’s statement noted.

In view of this, the Minister for National Security, Albert Kan-Dapaah has called on the Minister for Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, to take urgent action on the development, given the number of Ghanaians who use both WhatsApp and Telegram platforms.

See the statement from the Ministry of National Security below: