Mobile Botnet Hijacked Android Smartphone
Guys, we have interesting information for you. According to a Microsoft
researcher, Smartphone running Google's Android operating system (OS) have been
hijacked by a botnet.
Terry Zink as the researcher says that he had come across spam being
sent from Yahoo e-mail servers by Android devices, marking an evolution in
mobile malware.
We found a Zink writing in a blog post said that they have all heard the
rumors, but this is the first time they have seen it, a spammer has control of
a botnet that lives on Android devices. These devices login to the user’s Yahoo
e-mail account and send spam.
Look at its historical, mobile malware has made money from capturing SMS
messages used for online banking authentication and sending premium-rate
messages to collect the subscription fees.
Google introduced a new service into its Google Play app store that
provides automated scanning for potentially malicious software, without
requiring developers to go through an application approval process last year.
Between the first and second halves of 2011, there was a 40% decrease in
the number of potentially malicious downloads from Google Play. But Zink
believes the malware used to hijack the Android phones did not come from the
official app store, as the IP addresses of the hijacked Android devices
revealed they are located in Chile, Indonesia, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines,
Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine and Venezuela as claims by Google.
He also said that he was betting that the users of those phones
downloaded some malicious Android app in order to avoid paying for a legitimate
version and they got more than they bargained for. He also adds that he
believes this new technique being used by spammers ups the ante for spam
filters.
Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor at security firm Sophos says
that it is likely Android users are downloading pirate copies of Android
applications containing Trojans. He also adds that users should exercise
caution when downloading applications for their devices and definitely avoid
downloading pirated programs from unofficial sources..
In addition, Wisniewski also said that, although he had not seen a
sample of the malware concerned, the evidence suggests spam is originating from
a mobile botnet of Android devices.