Malware Found in Android Apps

It was bound to happen: as popular as Android phones have become, it’s no surprise that hackers are attacking. David Needle reports.

The growing popularity of app stores for mobile applications has attracted the attention of malicious hackers hoping to spread malware that could potentially compromise a user’s security and expose personal information.

The latest example is a report that Google had to scramble this week to pull at least 20 applications from its Android Market after the website Android Police reported that they were infected with malware.

“I just randomly stumbled into one of the apps, recognized it and noticed that the publisher wasn’t who it was supposed to be,” explained a post at Android Police.

“There’s another APK hidden inside the code, and it steals nearly everything it can: product ID, model, partner (provider?), language, country, and userID,” the post adds. “But that’s all child’s play; the true pièce de résistance is that it has the ability to download more code. In other words, there’s no way to know what the app does after it’s installed, and the possibilities are nearly endless.”

Read the rest about Android malware at Enterprise Mobile Today.