Android malware forwards SMS to crooks

Stefan Mileschin · 27th May 2013, 06:52

The latest malware designed for Android forwards a copy of your SMS to Russian criminals.

While there are some cases where we can think it would be useful for a Russian criminal to know that you are on your way home with a frozen pizza, it is not clear what it hopes to achieve with a huge database of useless data.

Nevertheless, Next Web calls us to admire the coding and tremble with fear at its results.

Once installed, the trojan can be used to steal sensitive messages for blackmailing purposes or more directly, codes which are used to confirm online banking transactions, Next Web wrote. Yeah it could, but the crook would have to install it on a specific phone manually which is not the most efficient way of spreading malware. They would then have to sort out the message they wanted from a huge database created from everyone who had the malware on board.

The malware in question has been dubbed "Android.Pincer.2.origin" by Russian security firm Doctor Web.

The user will see a fake notification about the certificate's successful installation but after that, the trojan will not perform any noticeable activities for a while.

Doctor Web has found criminals can send following instructions to the trojan and turn it on and off. It can also change servers if the current one is shut down.

http://news.techeye.net/security/and...-sms-to-crooks

27th May 2013, 06:52	#1
Stefan Mileschin [M] Reviewer Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Posts: 148,597	Android malware forwards SMS to crooks The latest malware designed for Android forwards a copy of your SMS to Russian criminals. While there are some cases where we can think it would be useful for a Russian criminal to know that you are on your way home with a frozen pizza, it is not clear what it hopes to achieve with a huge database of useless data. Nevertheless, Next Web calls us to admire the coding and tremble with fear at its results. Once installed, the trojan can be used to steal sensitive messages for blackmailing purposes or more directly, codes which are used to confirm online banking transactions, Next Web wrote. Yeah it could, but the crook would have to install it on a specific phone manually which is not the most efficient way of spreading malware. They would then have to sort out the message they wanted from a huge database created from everyone who had the malware on board. The malware in question has been dubbed "Android.Pincer.2.origin" by Russian security firm Doctor Web. The user will see a fake notification about the certificate's successful installation but after that, the trojan will not perform any noticeable activities for a while. Doctor Web has found criminals can send following instructions to the trojan and turn it on and off. It can also change servers if the current one is shut down. http://news.techeye.net/security/and...-sms-to-crooks

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