Security News > 2020 > April > ThreatList: Skype-Themed Apps Hide a Raft of Malware
Popular conferencing apps have become a major cybercrime lure during the COVID-19 work-from-home era - and Skype is the undisputed leader when it comes to being impersonated by malicious downloads, researchers have found.
An April analysis from Kaspersky uncovered a total of 120,000 suspicious malware and adware packages in the wild masquerading as versions of the video calling app.
It should be said that Skype isn't alone in being targeted: The research found that among a total of 1,300 suspicious files not using the Skype name, 42 percent were disguised as Zoom, followed by WebEx, GoToMeeting, Flock and Slack.
Some of the files found turned out to be simply knockoff versions of the real thing, but among the actual threats detected, a few malwares and file types came to the fore, including two adware families: DealPly and DownloadSponsor.
Trojans were also a popular malware type found in the fake apps, especially Skype, the firm found.