Slashdot Mirror
"Bill Shocker" Malware Controls 620,000 Android Phones In China
Orome1 writes "A new discovered malware is potentially one of the most costly viruses yet discovered. Uncovered by NQ Mobile, the 'Bill Shocker' (a.expense.Extension.a) virus has already impacted 620,000 users in China and poses a threat to unprotected Android devices worldwide. Bill Shocker downloads in the background, without arousing the mobile device owner's suspicion. The infection can then take remote control of the device, including the contact list, Internet connections and dialing and texting functions. Once the malware has turned the phone into a "zombie," the infection uses the device to send text message to the profit of advertisers. In many cases, the threat will overrun the user's bundling quota, which subjects the user to additional charges."
There are phone numbers you can dial that result in an addition to your bill and money being paid to the guy you dialed... 1-900 numbers or whatever in the US.
The idea of making malware to forcibly call these numbers to the profit of the number owner is not new.
Upon further reading the infection vector is infected pirated Android apps sold/distributed in black market Android marketplaces. Cry me a river folks.
"Bill Shocker downloads in the background"
Not really true. You have to install an infected app to get it started.
No sig today...
It's more likely than you think!
So it's just like this article, then?
Let me guess... you have to manually install an apk from an untrusted source?
bickerdyke
Of course the high profit venture has gone from 900 numbers to texting. The phone companies are once again in a position to help, but they won't.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
I think there is a LARGE measure of culpability (yes, I know that's the CRIMINAL term) for this on the part of the "Money Launderers" (the Banks, Telcos, and Governments involved in the "chain of custody" of these funds). Once alerted to this, the Police/"Justice Departments", not to mention the Telcos and Banks, in the country(ies) where the money is "landing" should be seizing bank accounts, taking down internet access, and generally making life a living Hell for whoever is PULLING THE DEPOSITS.
/.ers) seem to value so highly).
This CANNOT be legal under ANY Country's "fraud" laws. So why aren't these people being sued/prosecuted out of existence?
Qui Bono ("Who Profits?"). If the Banks, Telcos, and to some extent (through "fees" and "taxes") the "host Country(ies)" would actually go on an MPAA-style Jihad with these TRUE Racketeers, instead of actually AIDING AND ABETTING this Criminal Enterprise, perhaps there wouldn't be so much of it, regardless of the fact that the Android "mindset" makes this kind of thing ALL too easy, and Google is totally incapable of stopping it (without resorting to the "Walled Garden" approach that a small minority of Android users (but a vocal subset of
Yes, I understand that "The price of "freedom" (in quotes) is vigilance"; but ya gotta admit, if the Governments and Police in the Country(ies) where this money was ENDING UP spent as much effort on this as they do "watching for terrists" or "stopping piracy", not many (true) Criminals would even ATTEMPT something like this.
I mean, every single frickin' penny of this money can be tracked; so why is it SO hard to stop??? Something's fishy here.
This is NOT a virus; viruses infect a system, typically by modifying other existan executable files, and then self-replicate themselves. These are malware applications which have been installed by the users. In this case he notice, not covered in the summary, is that these applications are not designed to be malware, but rather they employ a free (as in gratis) SDK, which converts the phone in a zombie.
However, note that simply removing the applications should remove the "infection". The Android security model does not allow an application to "infect" the OS, unless the user has rooted the phone and runs the application as root (in this case, it's your fault).
"At times like these, I'm happy to have a Windows Phone."
Ok... but what about all the rest of the time? I was given an HTC 8x at work and asked to research the platform.. trying to use it as a daily driver and its just so frustrating coming from Android. You never realize how important a thriving app ecosystem is until you try to live with WP. I can deal with the wonky notifications and the limited "live tiles" vs widgets.. I guess. But looking through the app store is just depressing.
-Lod
Android is not a "Linux variant". Android uses a Linux kernel, but it's not a Linux distro. It most certainly is not an established, trusted distro, such as Debian, Suse, or Redhat.
Various dope smoking fools, working for various companies have rolled their own flavors of Android, seldom consulting with real Linux enthusiasts. Each and every manufacturer rolls his own dope-soaked version of Android, then alters that dopey version to suit the whims of the telcos that are actually purchasing them.
If Android is a Linux distro, then BlackXP, available via torrent, is a valid Windows release.
(Note that I've actually used BlackXP inside of VM's - it's actually pretty solid, but it's damned sure not Microsoft!)
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
RICO prosecutions would help. It's what should have been done with Spam in the early days when it started to become profitable.
Drag in the banks, the ISPs, and the other supposedly reputable service providers into the RICO prosecutions. Once a couple of well-known institutions get caught like this it would cut off the air supply of the illegal action and make it much, much more difficult.
By not doing this, we only encourage our supposedly legitimate institution to keep providing services to people who actually committing crimes.
I'd actually argue that Android has had more thought put into application security than the typical linux distro has.
Especially after it's been fucked up by idiots doing this sort of thing
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
Easy - the history is implemented by the App, not the OS. If you ask the OS to send a message, it just sends it.
That is why if you send a text from messaging App A you don't see it in the history of messaging App B.
The real place to monitor history is at the provider level anyway - then it will cover history even across multiple phones, OS resets, etc.
The bigger issue here is that mobile providers are allowed to sell you a service you don't want to buy. If I were grand dictator one of my first edicts would be that for ANY service the person buying the service could dictate the maximum amount they're wiling to pay per month (down to the lowest amount mentioned in any ad). The subscriber would then not be responsible for ANY charges in excess of this amount for any reason. The provider could of course refuse to deliver a service that cost more than their budget (cutting off calls when you're out of minutes, not delivering texts, blocking data, etc). However, if they provided the service they'd have to eat the cost if you told them you didn't want to spend that money. The result would be an end to $500 surprise bills - at most you could DOS yourself, and providers would really have no incentive to let you do that since it just lowers satisfaction and doesn't make them any more money.
Oh, and any increase to the limits has to be by phone call or in writing to customer service. No API on the phone that just lets you up your limit/etc which is then subject to abuse.
Phone companies are like the guys who run out and wash your windows while you're stuck in traffic and ask for money.