“A 20-year-old hacker has been arrested in northern France for spreading a virus via smartphone ‘apps’ that defrauded thousands of victims,” BBC News reports. “Prosecutors say he stole tiny sums from 17,000 people, amassing about 500,000 euros (£405,000) since 2011.”
“He snared victims with free downloads designed to look like original applications,” The Beeb reports. “But in the background the apps worked to steal money via hidden transactions. It appears smartphones that use Google software were the most susceptible, says the BBC’s Christian Fraser in Paris.”
The Beeb reports, “Once the fake applications were downloaded, the virus sent a text message without the user’s knowledge to a premium-rate number he had set up.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Open.”
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “buddabob” for the heads up.]
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iMac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iOS 6, Siri, iTunes, curated apps – why would you settle for less?
It ain’t rocket science.
or rocket surgery.
or brain science.
This is one they KNOW about!
This would be the “Android tax” then, correct?
Pretty darn happy in my walled garden!
And, despite the wall, the view is a hellofalot better from here!
That’s because we live high on the Hill in this walled garden. It’s lovely!
Amen.
With a tax that high, how can Apple be considered the most expensive product? It’s like saving money by purchasing a car with no brakes.
That’s why I only own Apple products. I like my place in Apple’s walled garden
The guy must get paid by the word. “It appears smartphones that use Google software were the most susceptible, …” is sometimes just called an Android phone. To the people that got suckered in, they call it that Android piece of crap!
Robin Hood
What’s French for ‘pwned’?
Le ‘pwned!
Take it back… It’s Pepe Le Pew!
On a side note: wonder if that guy was ever saying to himself, “Wile E. Coyote: Super Genius!”
“It appears smartphones that use Google software were the most susceptible” it just “APPEAR” or just android.
Looks like the so called “reporters” wanna make you believe that other OSes were affected so the people believe that all smartphones are insecure.
And during haloween, the French sat Treat or Retreat 🙂
Edward , Patrick…. Where are you … Oh … Checking your accounts…Open system means spread em … You get what you pay for .., or in this case what you didn’t pay for …. Security.
Don’t forget Gupta.
Yeah, and don’t forget iSS or “Chris”. Pretty telling when none of these a-hole fscktard troll are anywhere to be found on this forum when the real truth about Fandroid settlers is revealed!
there’s an app for that. (for android)
Really what’s to prevent a developer in the Apple echo system from being able to do this?
I mean, Apple developers have to self disclose all the capabilities of the app they are trying to publish. During the Apple review process, would they be able to detect all of an apps functions if it were not properly disclosed?
The Camera+ people had a hidden feature which was activated by visiting a URL. Because it was communicated to the public, Apple learned about it, and the app was pulled.
All this is saying is you can still do anything you want, as a developer, if you can properly hide what you are doing.
The developers are registered with Apple and if anything was found to be awry they would be easily “sorted”.
You cannot send a SMS message in background, the only thing an app can do is to open the message dialog.
Danilko01…. As an Apple developer I can tell you that Apple’s vetting process would go a long way to prevent this type of thing from happening. In addition, the background information that Apple collects and checks on prospective developers would certainly, in the event something got through, stopped this thief much quicker than the 2+ years it took. Making such activity not really worth it
It would be much better not to speak on an issue you know
nothing about and seem ignorant of an issue…. Than to post a comment and prove it.
Really what’s to prevent a developer in the Apple echo system from being able to do this?
At least with the Apple echo system you can hear the echo.
You can do anything in the world to any entity you want if you can PROPERLY HIDE it. It’s like stating that I can be Olympic world records if I’m fast enough, but very few people have the dedication, talent, or the training to become that fast. The point is that it’s very difficult to be good enough to hide these things from Apple. That’s why Apple has three times the apps with 1/10th the number of security flaws.
The people who use Android OS deserve this. Sorry, but I have absolutely no sympathy for people who use a ripped off OS and are not willing to pay for the real thing. They should all be suing Goggle.
I know the sentiment. But its hard to blame someone completely ignorant of the tech and say they deserve it. Frequently they are incredibly grateful to at last comprehend the situation so they can move to the sane side of the street. They act as sheeple as they watch others doing it and they don’t know any better.
But then there are the businesses that force employees to use crap technology. I have a brother who can only use a Android phone to keep in touch with work as that is the only platform they support: STOOOPID! That’s when you point at the company IT doofases and either laugh or spit. 😉
Well said.
Thanks bud!
Good points, Derek. People who follow this stuff online are the very small minority. Everybody knows what an iPhone is, but many many people don’t even know what Android is. They know they have a Samsung Galaxy or whatever brand it is, but that’s it.
Apple walled garden or Google mine field? Hmm, tough choice!
The problem is that as developer and as user you cannot really do a lot (except not using any third-party applications or not using Android):
applications need to use third-party payment systems since Google Play is not popular among users. But many third-party payment systems use premium SMS and require the right to send or receive SMS messages. This means each application which uses the payment service needs to demand the right for sending and receiving SMS messages from the user, on installation. Since most applications require this right, you have not really a choice as user, either you install it or you cannot use it, and can’t really find out if the app is ok.
Google has started to ban third-party payment systems from Google Play, which is just making it more closed, less interesting for users, makes alternative download places more popular, increasing fragmentation: fragmentation not only by hardware, carrier and OS, but also distribution network and payment service.
“Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.” ~Albert Einstein
Why is this even illegal? People installed his app without knowing what it did or having anyone else check what it did. They deserve what they got. This kid should keep the money.