Android's Gingerbread, ICS main target of cyber criminals

Gingerbread, the most popular android version, attracts increased interest from cybercriminals

The most popular targets among cyber criminals in the third quarter of the current year were Android versions 2.3.6, popularly known as ‘Gingerbread’, and 4.0.4, also known as ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’, according to an analysis done by Kaspersky Labs.

The rapid growth in the number of new mobile malicious programs for android continued in the third quarter, prompting the specialists at Kaspersky Lab to identify the platform versions most frequently targeted by cyber criminals.

Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread accounted for 28% of all blocked attempts to install malware, while the second most commonly attacked version was the new 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, which accounted for 22% of attempts.

“Although Gingerbread was released back in September 2011, due to the segmentation of the Android device market it still remains one of the most popular versions, which, in turn, attracts increased interest from cybercriminals,” said Yuri Namestnikov, senior malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab.

Source: business-standard

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Android Trojan Attack 100,000 plus users

Security researchers are warning of yet another Android malware outbreak which has spread to nine app stores and infected 100,000 with code designed to covertly purchase apps and content from China Mobile’s Mobile Market.

Mobile security firm TrustGo explained that the MMarketPay.A Trojan could be hidden in a number of legitimate-looking applications, including those from Sina and media streaming company Funinhand, as well as travel and weather apps. Few days ago Microsoft also confirm that Microsoft Confirm hackers Spam in Android Devices.

The malware has already been placed in nine different third party Android app markets in China, infecting over 100,000, the firm said.

Once downloaded, the Trojan will automatically place orders for paid content and apps at China Mobile’s official Mobile Market online store without informing the user.

It is able to intercept China Mobile’s verification SMS and post the code to the Mobile Market web site in order to complete the purchase, said TrustGo.

In the event of CAPTCHA being triggered at this stage, the malware will apparently send the relevant image to a remote server for analysis.

The advice from the security experts at TrustGo is for users to only download Android apps from trusted app stores and to have some form of real-time mobile security scanner installed on their device to prevent any dodgy downloads.

Visiting an apparently legit app store is no guarantee you’re going to get a malware-free experience, however.

Malware is frequently turning up on the official Android marketplace Google Play – although admittedly less frequently than on some of the more dubious third party sites.

The latest discovery came at the tail end of last week when researchers found malware that lifts the victim’s location data and address book info.

China in particular has been a hotbed of malicious Android activity for some time.

In April, the Chinese authorities were forced to publically reprimand the country’s two biggest mobile carriers, China Mobile and China Telecom, after uncovering “many problems” in their respective app stores.

Globally too, Android continues to be a favourite with cyber criminals.

Security firm Trend Micro is predicting the discovery of 129,000 malicious apps by the end of the year and has compiled this handy infographic detailing the main threats.

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Microsoft Confirm hackers Spam in Android Devices

A spam engineer at Microsoft has warned that hackers can use Android powered tablets and smartphones to send spam emails.  Android users should be cautious to install any mobile apps that do not come from the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore since a new malware app has been reportedly sending spam emails through affected devices.  Terry Zink says that a new app is sending out emails with the signature “Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android” and the messages are starting to come from a number of locations including Indonesia, Chile, Lebanon, Oman, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ukraine and Thailand.

Zink wrote on an MSDN blog, “I’ve written in the past that Android has the most malware compared to other smartphone platforms, but your odds of downloading and installing a malicious Android app is pretty low if you get it from the Android Marketplace, but if you get it from some guy in a back alley on the Internet, the odds go way up.”  The malware affected app logs into your Yahoo account through your Android device and then starts by sending out spam messages.

The app does not seem to be coming from Google’s Play Store, so that is a little less to worry about, but users who attempt to download hacked, pirated or other versions of official apps should be aware they could contain the malware code.  Malware type apps have appeared in the past and sent spam text messages from users phones in order to rack up phone bills to unsuspecting smartphone users.  The “botnet” virus gives the hacker just enough access to your account to send the spam messages.  The messages have not been sent anywhere in the United States yet, but that does not mean you are 100 percent safe either.

Users can avoid malicious content from mobile app download stores if they stick to official stores like the Amazon Appstore and Google Play Store which scan for potentially harmful mobile apps and remove them from the store or deny their submission altogether.  If you are concerned about downloading the wrong type of mobile app you can follow a couple easy steps.  Before the app is installed on your device, the Android software will show you what permissions it has on your phone.  If you are downloading a game app, you might want to make sure it does not have access to your contact list.  You can get more tips for downloading safe apps online.

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Ice Cream Sandwich now on one in 10 Android devices

Ice Cream Sandwich is now installed on more than 10 percent of Android devices, according to Google.

Data collected by the search-turned-mobile giant during the 14-day period that ended yesterday shows that version 4.0 of Google’s mobile operating system is now present on 10.9 percent of all devices. The data was collected from Android devices that accessed Google Play, the Android application store, during the two-week period.

The latest stats, which come less than a week after Android 4.1 Jelly Bean was announced at Google I/O, show a significant jump for Ice Cream Sandwich: a week ago, the OS was around the 7 percent mark.

The increase of 4 percentage points could be put down to a sharp rise in device sales during the past month, which can be largely attributed to the launch of Samsung’s Galaxy S III and HTC’s One X.

All in all, it’s taken more than eight months for Google to reach 10 percent of the total Android base with Ice Cream Sandwich, after the OS was announced in 2011.

And while Ice Cream Sandwich is on the rise, it’s the opposite story for Android 2.3 Gingerbread: the OS fell for the first time, dropping from 65 percent to 64 percent over the same two-week period.

Nonetheless, Gingerbread, first released in December 2010, remains the most popular Android version to date.