Android Hackers Honing Skills In Russia

MikeatWired writes "The malware business growing around Google Android — now the leading smartphone operating system — is still in its infancy. Today, many of the apps built to steal money from Android users originate from Russia and China, so criminal gangs there have become cyber-trailblazers. Sophos and Symantec on Wednesday released their latest Android malware discoveries written in Russian. While the language narrows the number of potential victims, the social-engineering tactics used to get Android users to install the malware is universal. The gang tracked by Sophos is using fake antivirus scanners, while Symantec is tracking cybercriminals using mobile websites to offer bogus versions of popular games. Sophos says the criminals are like other entrepreneurs launching startups. They're starting in Russia, but have far greater ambitions. 'I don't think we can say that they're necessarily using it as a testing ground — think of it more as a local business that as it grows may gain multinational ambitions,' Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in an email interview on Wednesday. The cyber scam tracked by Sophos was reported this week by GFI Lab, which discovered links to the bogus antivirus software on Twitter. Sophos dug deeper and found that the .ru domains pointed to the same Internet protocol address hosted in Ukraine."

Re:Android is virus laden

[tywjohn]

Unfortunately I agree. I used to love Android when it was at version 2.x but I have since been using an iPhone (provided by my employer). Now that I have seen all the malware floating around the Android Market, I don't think I will go back. I'm not anti-Google. I use a lot of Google services and I'm not one of those privacy concerned people. But I do care about installed crap software on my devices whether it be a phone of a computer.

Re:Android is virus laden

[Anonymous Coward]

PEBKAC isn't really relevant in this context. In any case if you for whatever reason want your phone to be as open as your computer then you need to take those extra precautions of a non-locked down system, if you choose a walled-garden approach instead you don't have to concern yourself with such things nearly as much...but that's the great thing about the choice of mobile platforms in today's market.

Re:Android is virus laden

[Anonymous Coward]

Android's biggest malware problem is users who intentionally went in and set WALLED_GARDEN=OFF so they could install warez.

Yes, Google's app store has some crappy policies which let malware slip through, but most of it is users bringing it on themselves.

Re:Android is virus laden

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people buy android phones, not because they care about walled gardens vs open systems. Most people buy android phones because they are cheaper. Such people don't read slashdot or geek news sites. They don't even know they got anything to be smart about. Add to that that people are not used to worry about such things when their phone is considered (unlike the PC, where everyone knows that you should have some kind of anti-virus software installed) and what you get is a great environment for malware to spread and flourish in.

Android phones are phones designed by geeks for geeks and sold to the average person who don't care as much about the tech and the platform. That is a design flaw that can be remedied by geeks repeating the mantra "it is unsafe because you are using it wrong".

Re:Android is virus laden

[Anonymous Coward]

Over the last 15 years Slashdot has told me that Windows' security is terrible and that's the reason why so many people have problems.

Now that a Linux-based OS has suddenly found itself the target of malware writers, suddenly Slashdot changes its tune.

Typical.

Re:Android is virus laden

[tlhIngan]

PEBKAC isn't really relevant in this context. In any case if you for whatever reason want your phone to be as open as your computer then you need to take those extra precautions of a non-locked down system, if you choose a walled-garden approach instead you don't have to concern yourself with such things nearly as much...but that's the great thing about the choice of mobile platforms in today's market.

Problem is, people want phones - something they can pick up and play with immediately. Not think about it nor have antivirus/antispyware software installed and running as well like their PCs.

Plus, with all the coolness surrounding apps, you have the Dancing Pigs [wikipedia.org] problem - people just want to go to the app store or market, click download and get going on that cool app. It's why sites all have direct links to the stores, or QR codes to scan - to get that app in the user's hands ASAP. As a result, they're not going to look at stuff like permission lists and such because that's just getting in the way of running the app.

Hell, ICS made it even easier to install apps without seeing the permission list - tap install and it takes you to the permission screen, but the install button is near the top and the permissions at the bottom. Users are more likely to just tap "download" rather than pull their eyes down and over the permission list.

Of course, the other thing is, Android makes it easy to sideload apps, so people love searching Bittorrent for new apps...

Re:Android is virus laden

[progician]

The android problem has nothing to do with the fact the kernel is Linux. Linux based operating systems are tend to be secure because there's a community maintained software repository accompanied to them. Most of the software can be review by anybody because the source code is available. Also, you are completely in charge of your computer if you're choosing the right distro. Android is partially open only, and Google Play don't have the same approval mechanism like the Debian's repository. Once we get some Debian alike distro on our mobiles, we can say that we have a secure operating system on our mobile devices.