“A malicious Android app that held people to ransom has been found by US security firm Zscaler,” BBC News reports.
“Adult Player appeared to offer pornography, but secretly took pictures of users with the phone’s front-facing camera,” BBC News reports. “It then locked the user’s device and displayed a demand for $500 (£330) which was difficult to bypass.”
“Apps which demand money from people with a threat to release private information, or wipe a device, are known as ransomware,” BBC News reports. “In August, Intel Security said examples of ransomware had increased 127% since 2014 – primarily affecting desktop computers and laptops.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Open.” As in, your camera shutter is open, so open your wallet because you’re too stupid, cheap, and/or clueless to use a real iPhone.
SEE ALSO:
Waiting for Android’s inevitable security Armageddon – August 10, 2015
Security journalist: Goodbye, Android, hello Apple iPhone! – July 29, 2015
950 million Android phones can be hijacked by malicious text messages – July 27, 2015
New Android malware strains to top 2 million by end of 2015 – July 1, 2015
Symantec: 1 in 5 Android apps is malware – April 25, 2015
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
You get what you pay for – in Apple we trust.
And yet, many pro Android Internet sites are using this and the recent jailbroken iPhone hack to say they both are similar indications that no one is safe.
The reality is that this hack is a weird form of Trojan that dupes even NON JAILBROKEN Android users into giving the app sufficient rights to take pictures on its own and lockdown the phone with a ransom demand. Conversely, the iPhone hack is against users that have decided to drop some of the protections built into iOS and load apps specifically not allowed through Apple’s app store.
In the first, the OS allows the hack. In the second the user has to specifically and intentionally get around the OS’s built in protections. The two cases are radically different.
Yet, this does not stop the Android fan club set from equating the two.
There is no such thing as a ‘jail-broken’ Android phone. Any Android phone is allowed to install apps from any source (including pirated copies downloaded frrom some “warez” site and side-loaded via micro-SD card).
While there is a process called ‘rooting’ which allows Android user to gain admin privileges on their phone, as well as ‘custom ROM’ installation, which allows user to install OS of their choice, bypassing the carrier updates, neither of the two have any meaningful effect on the security of an Android phone. Even a stock phone, with carrier software and updates, is wide open and vulnerable, and can download apps from anywhere.
Android users and tech writers love to downplay Apple’s security. They never talk about how Apple has a kill switch build in. Law enforcement believes this is the number one theft deterrence. However only carriers, not OEMs, can create them on Android; and they don’t want to. I believe a lot, not all, want to keep people in Androids so they can take advantage of them.
Hey Siri is this Mac News?
Hey Siri do you care?
Android users would buy a Yugo if it were for sale today, because it is cheap and almost good enough … almost
Android users deserve what they get for choosing a phone based on it being “not Apple.” Well, enjoy the ransoms.
Poor Android suckers. Can’t get any action so they end up resorting to self pleasuring. Now there are photos taken of their contorted wild eyed faces to be had for ransom! hahahahahahahahaha 😛
It just goes to show how disgusting and perverted the average android user must be. And anyone caught jerking off in public is almost certainly going to be sporting a sticky Samsung Galaxy s3
Regarding MDN’s take…
Alternatively, if you’re too stupid to be able to use an open OS, then by all means use the censored (curated) OS and let them be your IT department.
You should say…: “…- because you’re too stupid, cheap, and/or clueless to open to a real iPhone.” 🙂