Security Researchers Backtrack on Android Malware Claim

The Wall Street Journal: Yesterday, Microsoft researcher Terry Zink said he had discovered an Android botnet, but now he admits he may have been mistaken. After the initial story broke, Google issued a statement saying, “The evidence we’ve examined does not support the Android botnet claim. Our analysis so far suggests that spammers are using infected computers and a fake mobile signature to try to bypass anti-spam mechanisms in the email platform they’re using. We’re continuing to investigate the details.”

After re-examining the evidence, Zink blogged, “Yes, it’s entirely possible that bot on a compromised PC connected to Yahoo Mail” and insert the “Yahoo Mail for Android” tagline at the bottom of the spam messages “to make it look like the spam was coming from Android devices.”