Paranoid Android Users: App Malware On The Rise
Malware writers, clever bunch that they are, have turned to the mobile app space for new victims. This is particularly true of the Chinese Android marketplace, as outlined in a recent Register piece:
Malware writers are trying to infect Chinese users of Android smartphones with a Trojan that poses as a wallpaper for the smartphone’s screen or other legitimate applications, such as the popular game RoboDefense.
The mobile malware, dubbed Adrd or alternatively HongTouTou, has been seeded onto third-party mobile app stores in China. The official Android Market is not affected.
If installed, the Trojan gathers the IMEI and IMSI numbers of compromised devices, uploading this information to a remote server, before generating counterfeit queries against particular search results. The malware specifically generated fraudulent clicks on the Baidu ad network, according to anti-virus firm AVG, which reckons the Trojan is the work of a group also producing malware targeting Symbian smartphone.
The use of the malware in a click-fraud scam marks it out as more sophisticated than previous flavours of Android malware, which typically send SMS messages to premium rate numbers from compromised handsets.
What’s a mobile user to do? Well, if you’ve been following the Mobile World Congress (as we have), you’d know that Kaspersky Mobile now protects BlackBerry and Android users from all sorts of mobile mischief. But aside from a small selection of anti-malware products, the industry’s best bet for protecting users is a top-down focus on mobile app security testing, but you probably already knew that.
