This is the first of its kind for Android. A text message-based Trojan is infecting smartphones running the Android OS. This Trojan will empty the pockets of many Android users if they download the media player that launches this Trojan.
The Trojan is called Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer-A and it poses as a free media player application for Android smartphones. This Trojan has already infected a number of smart phones and it could make its way to thousands of smart phones before the Trojan becomes inoculated. Prospective marks are prompted to install a “media player file” that’s just a tad over 13 KB with the standard Android .APK extension.
Once installed, the Trojan begins sending SMS messages to premium-rate numbers without the owner’s knowledge or consent. Victims wind up with a huge bill while the cybercrooks behind the scheme earn a slice of the income. There have been isolated cases of devices running Android getting infected with spyware since last year, but this is the first occasion that an SMS-spewing Trojan, common in the world of mobile malware, has affected devices running Google’s operating system.
Denis Maslennikov, mobile research group manager at Kaspersky Lab, said the success of the Android platform in the marketplace has triggered increased interest from virus writers. The Russian security firm plans to respond to the increased threat with a new mobile security product, Kaspersky Mobile Security for Android, in early 2011.
Users are advised to pay close attention to the services that an application requests access to during installation. If a user agrees to permit an application to access premium rate service during installation, the smart phone may then be able to make calls and send SMSs without further authorization.
Source: Kaspersky Lab (Article page is currently unavailable)
Dirty stain for Android, really. Maybe this story is not ended yet!
Well, there’s always gotta be a first.
With this Trojan, you will lose a lot of your phone balance for premium SMS that cost too much per SMS.
I guess it was only a matter of time. Next we’ll have to be install antivirus and firewall software on our smartphones.
Mike,
It’s a matter of time when smartphones will have security software.
Frank Jovine dear i agree with you.