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Downloading various apps blindly from Google play store may bring you at risk in terms of money.  PandaLabs , the Cloud Security Company, has identified malicious Android apps on Google Play that can sign up users for premium SMS subscription services without their permission and so far it has infected at least 300,000 Android users, although the number of malicious downloads could have reached 4 times higher i.e. 1,200,000 users. The four apps found free in the app store that came packaged with a premium SMS scam that dubbed as "Easy Hairdos", "Abs Diets", "Workout Routines" and "Cupcake Recipes" and are among the malicious apps available for free download on Google Play store . From the above app, say if 'Abs Diet' has been installed on your phone and once the user has accepted the terms and conditions of the service, the app displays a series of tips to reduce abdominal fat and then without the user's knowledge, the app l...

Flappy Bird , developed by a 29-year old, Dong Nguyen , was one of the top free gaming apps of the last month, but now officially unavailable for users. After achieving income of $50,000 per day in advertising revenue, Dong Nguyen pulled out Flappy Bird gaming app from all the web app stores and now it's permanently dead. " Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed ," says Dong Nguyen, in an exclusive interview with Forbes. " But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever. " Till now the reason is not clear from Dong's statement that why exactly he quit the app, but it's clear that his decision have given opportunity for hackers for creating a malicious version of this app and the app's popularity will help them to gain success in spreading Smartphone  malware to mass and hence, the malicious apps are available in play stores ...

In the last quarter of 2013, sale of a Smartphone with ANDROID operating system has increased and every second person you see is a DROID user. A Russian security firm ' Doctor Web' identified the first mass distributed Android bootkit malware called ' Android.Oldboot ', a piece of malware that's designed to re-infect devices after reboot, even if you delete all working components of it. The bootkit Android.Oldboot has infected more than 350,000 android users in China, Spain, Italy, Germany, Russia, Brazil, the USA and some Southeast Asian countries. China seems to a mass victim of this kind of malware having a 92 % share. A Bootkit is a rootkit malware variant which infects the device at start-up and may encrypt disk or steal data, remove the application, open connection for Command and controller. A very unique technique is being used to inject this Trojan into an Android system where an attacker places a component of it into the boot...

Hey Android users! I am quite sure that you must be syncing your Smartphone with your PCs for transferring files and generating backup of your device.  If your system is running a windows operating system, then it's a bad news for you. Researchers have discovered a new piece of windows malware that attempts to install mobile banking malware on Android devices while syncing. Last year in the month of February, Kaspersky Lab revealed an Android malware that could infect your computer when connected to Smartphone or tablets.   Recently, Researchers at Symantec antivirus firm discovered another interesting windows malware called ' Trojan . Droidpak ', that drops a malicious DLL in the computer system and then downloads a configuration file from the following remote server: https://xia2.dy[REMOVED]s-web.com/iconfig.txt The Windows Trojan then parses this configuration file and download a malicious APK (an Android application) from the following locatio...

Android platform is a primary target for malware attacks from few years and during 2013, more than 79% of mobile operating malware threats are taking place on Android OS. I have been working on Android Malware architectures since last two years and created 100's of sample of most sophisticated malware for demo purpose. Till now we have seen the majority of Android malware apps that earn money for their creators by sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers from infected devices. Security researchers at Lookout identified an interesting monetized Android Malware labeled as ' Mouabad ', that allow a remote attacker to make phone calls to premium-rate numbers without user interaction from C&C servers by sending commands to the malware. The technique is not new, but infection from such app notified first time in the wild. The variant dubbed MouaBad . p. , is particularly sneaky and to avoid detection it waits to make its calls until a period of tim...

Google has recently removed a Rogue Android gaming app called " Balloon Pop 2 " from its official Play store that was actually stealing user's private Whatsapp app conversations. Every day numerous friends ask me if it is possible to steal WhatsApp chat messages and how, of course a malware represents an excellent solution to the request. In the past I already posted an article on the implementation of encryption mechanisms for WhatsApp application explaining that improper design could allow attackers to snoop on the conversation. Spreading the malware through an official channel the attacker could improve the efficiency of the attack, and it is exactly what is happening, an Android game has been published on the official Google Play store to stealthy steal users' WhatsApp conversation databases and to resell the collection of messages on an internet website. The games titled " Balloon Pop 2 " has been fortunately identified and removed from the official Google Play...

A very profitable line for mobile malware developers is Android Banking Trojans, which infect phones and steal passwords and other data when victims log onto their online bank accounts. One recent trend is Android malware that attacks users in specific countries, such as European Countries, Brazil and India.  The Antivirus software maker Malwarebytes noticed that a new threat distributed via file sharing sites and alternative markets in the last few months, targets Korean users. Dubbed as ' Android/Trojan . Bank . Wroba ', malware disguises itself as the Google Play Store app and run as a service in the background to monitor events.  " This enables it to capture incoming SMS, monitor installed apps and communicate with a remote server. " According to the researcher, after installation - malware lookup for existence of targeted Banking applications on the device, remove them and download a malicious version to replace. " The malicious v...

Google just released a new Play Store version 4.0.27 that, contains only very minor tweaks and Google has changed the rules of its Google Play Store to put an end to the practice of developers updating their apps through their own means rather than the official Google Play channel. Shortly before the Facebook Home launch, some users noticed a new version of Facebook was available on their device, but it wasn't through the Play Store. Instead, the update came directly through the app, bypassing the Store altogether. Under the " Dangerous Products " section of the Google Play developer policies, Google now states that " an app downloaded from Google Play may not modify, replace or update its own APK binary code using any method other than Google Play's update mechanism. " Essentially this means that once an app is downloaded by an Android user it cannot contact home base and auto-update its own operating code. Instead, it has to use the off...

Kaspersky Lab has revealed a new type of malware that can infect your computer when connected smartphone or tablet. Two such application, Super Clean and DroidCleaner found in Google Play android market. These two are actually same application, just released with two different names. These applications apparently disguised as a tool to clean memory for the Android operating system but after installing and running it displays a list of all running some processes and then restart the device. Later, in background, the app downloads three files autorun.inf, folder.ico, and svchosts.exe in phone. When user connect infected android mobile phone to any Windows computer with active Autorun or Autoplay functionality for USB devices, the svchosts.exe file ( Backdoor.MSIL.Ssucl.a ) is automatically executed on computer. A similar situation may arise in case of SD card. Before apps were removed by Google, they may together have been downloaded up to...

Google Play Developer Console enables developers to easily publish and distribute their applications directly to users of Android-compatible phones. Recently someone posted on Reddit that a developer is trying to spread malware by masquerading infected programs as legitimate software. The account of the developer called, " apkdeveloper " and readers spotted that they are posting fake malware apps by names of famous android games and apps, using the word "Super" as suffix to them, making them seem as an upgraded version of the game. The users can find the difference between the real app and malicious app by observing the device permissions, like as compared to the simple permissions like network access and read write access of the original Temple Run app, the ' Temple Run Super ' app asks for sensitive information like location, phone status, identity and access to user accounts. After many report abuse Google Play has removed the developer from th...