Costly Android Malware Infects 600,000 Users in China, Firm Says.
Costly Android Malware
Infects 600,000 Users in China, Firm Says.
Researchers from
mobile security firm NQ Mobile have uncovered what they are calling
“a nasty piece of malware” that has already infected more than 600,000 users in
China.
Named “Bill Shocker” by the China-based mobile security firm,
the malware is potentially one of the most costly viruses yet discovered, the
company said.
“Bill Shocker is an SDK-type virus (Software Development Kit).
Our experts, using NQ’s RiskRanker system, found the virus attached to several
of the most popular mobile apps in China, including Tencent QQ Messenger and
Sohu News,” the company explained.
The malware is propagating via third-party online app stores and
retail installation channels, something the company says is allowing it to
“spread like wildfire”.
The Bill Shocker malware downloads itself in the background on a
users’ Android device without their knowledge and takes remote control of the
device, including accessing contact lists, Internet connections, dialing and texting
functions.
“Once it’s turned your phone into a “zombie,” it sends text
messages that create financial gains for advertisers. In many cases, the threat
will overrun a user’s bundling quota, which subjects you to even more unwanted
charges,” the company said.
While the malware may not steal data or cause other damage to
the device, NQ Mobile still considers it a threat due to the fact that it can
rack up a users’ phone bill by sending costly messages.
NQ says it has notified Chinese mobile carriers of the threat,
and has provided its technology to China’s top mobile carriers including, China
Mobile and China Unicom as well as Baidu Mobile Services, to help reduce the
spread of mobile malware.
This past summer, researchers from TrustGo discovered a mobile threat
targeting Android phones that
was said to have infected roughly 500,000 devices, mainly in China. Called
“SMSZombie”, the malware was little threat to users outside of China, as the
prime function of the mobile malware was to exploit a vulnerability in the
mobile payment system used by China Mobile, making it of little value to the fraudsters
outside of China.
SecurityWeek contacted Lookout,
a mobile security firm based in San Francisco, to see if they had any
information on the "Bill Shocker" threat. A Lookout spokesperson toldSecurityWeek that it was hard to measure the
threat’s significance without access to the sample. “As soon as NQ releases
more details on the threat, we'll be able to determine if this is in fact a new
threat, and who it is affecting,” the spokesperson said.
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