BadNews malware has infected 32 apps on Google Play: report
https://latestsnewsforyou.blogspot.com/2013/04/badnews-malware-has-infected-32-apps-on.html
by FP Staff
According to security firm, Lookout, Google Play Store has a new malware called BadNews, which has infected over 32 apps. The firm has informed Google that the infected apps were downloaded between 2,000,000 to 9,000,000 times. Google has removed all the apps and suspended the associated developer accounts for now.
The firm wrote in a blogpost,
BadNews masquerades as an innocent, if somewhat aggressive advertising network. This is one of the first times that we’ve seen a malicious distribution network clearly posing as an ad network. Because it’s challenging to get malicious bad code into Google Play, the authors of Badnews created a malicious advertising network, as a front, that would push malware out to infected devices at a later date in order to pass the app scrutiny.
According to the firm, the malware has the capability of sending out fake news messages, prompt users to install applications and sends sensitive information such as the phone number and device ID to its Command and Control (C&C) server.
According to security firm, Lookout, Google Play Store has a new malware called BadNews, which has infected over 32 apps. The firm has informed Google that the infected apps were downloaded between 2,000,000 to 9,000,000 times. Google has removed all the apps and suspended the associated developer accounts for now.
The firm wrote in a blogpost,
BadNews masquerades as an innocent, if somewhat aggressive advertising network. This is one of the first times that we’ve seen a malicious distribution network clearly posing as an ad network. Because it’s challenging to get malicious bad code into Google Play, the authors of Badnews created a malicious advertising network, as a front, that would push malware out to infected devices at a later date in order to pass the app scrutiny.
According to the firm, the malware has the capability of sending out fake news messages, prompt users to install applications and sends sensitive information such as the phone number and device ID to its Command and Control (C&C) server.
The firm says that 50 percent of the identified applications are in Russian. The apps have also been downloaded in neighboring countries such as the Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia and Kazakhstan.
This is not the first time that Google’s Play Store has faced malware attacks. In 2012, McAfee had reported that as far as Android was concerned, it had noticed 1.5 million increase in malware since Q1 2012 and identified new threats such as mobile “drive-by downloads”, the use of Twitter for control of mobile botnets, and the appearance of mobile “ransomware”.
Android devices haven’t exactly been safe. Google needs to beef up its security as far as apps are concerned or else malware incidents like BadNews will continue to take place.
.firstpost.com
