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25 Million Android Phones Infected With Malware That ‘Hides In WhatsApp’
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Arlen G. Holder
Jul 11, 2019, 12:31:07 AM7/11/19
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25 Million Android Phones Infected With Malware That Hides In WhatsApp
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/07/10/25-million-android-phones-infected-with-malware-that-hides-in-whatsapp/>
The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
owned by China¢s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
127.0.0.1 9apps.com
Most victims are based in India, where as many as 15 million were infected.
But there are more than 300,000 in the U.S., with another 137,000 in the
U.K.
Typically the attack works as following: users download an app from the
store - typically photo utility, games or adult themed apps (one called
Kiss Game: Touch Her Heart is advertised with a cartoon of a man kissing a
scantily clad woman). This app then silently installs the malware,
disguised as a legitimate Google updating tool. No icon appears for this on
the screen, making it even more surreptitious. Legitimate apps - from
WhatsApp to the Opera browser and more - are then replaced with an evil
update so they serve the bad ads. The researchers said the ads themselves
weren't malicious per se. But in a typical ad fraud scheme, every click on
an injected advert will send money back to the hackers, as per a typical
pay-per-click system.
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/07/10/25-million-android-phones-infected-with-malware-that-hides-in-whatsapp/>
The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
owned by China¢s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
127.0.0.1 9apps.com
Most victims are based in India, where as many as 15 million were infected.
But there are more than 300,000 in the U.S., with another 137,000 in the
U.K.
Typically the attack works as following: users download an app from the
store - typically photo utility, games or adult themed apps (one called
Kiss Game: Touch Her Heart is advertised with a cartoon of a man kissing a
scantily clad woman). This app then silently installs the malware,
disguised as a legitimate Google updating tool. No icon appears for this on
the screen, making it even more surreptitious. Legitimate apps - from
WhatsApp to the Opera browser and more - are then replaced with an evil
update so they serve the bad ads. The researchers said the ads themselves
weren't malicious per se. But in a typical ad fraud scheme, every click on
an injected advert will send money back to the hackers, as per a typical
pay-per-click system.
sms
Jul 11, 2019, 9:37:12 AM7/11/19
to
On 7/10/2019 9:31 PM, Arlen G. Holder wrote:
> 25 Million Android Phones Infected With Malware That Hides In WhatsApp
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/07/10/25-million-android-phones-infected-with-malware-that-hides-in-whatsapp/>
>
> The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
> owned by China¢s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
The Google Play store is officially not available in China.
> 25 Million Android Phones Infected With Malware That Hides In WhatsApp
> <https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2019/07/10/25-million-android-phones-infected-with-malware-that-hides-in-whatsapp/>
>
> The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
> owned by China¢s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
Arlen G. Holder
Jul 16, 2019, 3:33:59 AM7/16/19
to
On Thu, 11 Jul 2019 06:37:10 -0700, sms wrote:
>> The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
>> owned by China˘s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
>
> The Google Play store is officially not available in China.
Hi Steve, and other Android & iOS users...
>> The malware has spread via a third party app store 9apps.com, which is
>> owned by China˘s Alibaba, rather than the official Google Play store.
>
> The Google Play store is officially not available in China.
The iOS newsgroup had a post today on this subject, from an apologist:
<http://tinyurl.com/misc-phone-mobile-iphone>
While that apologist doesn't even own Android equipment (AFAIK), I think
it's kind of funny how childish he was, with respect to this out-of-context
adware scam, where Google today, is reported to have been notified of 11
apps out of the 2.7 million on the Google Play store, and they removed 16
apps (presumably they found the next 5 on their own) as of today.
The apps did seem to hve been downloaded 300K times in the USA (and 137K
times in the UK), where I haven't heard of _any_ of these apps before
today.
Has anyone here heard of them?
See a verbatim copy of the post from the Apple Apologist below.
o Bwahahahahaha
<https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/misc.phone.mobile.iphone/P98OQjrG28E>
**********************************************************
https://9to5google.com/2019/07/12/agent-smith-malware-android/>
25 million android phones get malware! Sure is a secure platform, huh?
Most of these phones will not be able to remove the malware or prevent
it from being reinstalled since they cannot update their software.
<https://www.indiatoday.in/technology/news/story/agent-smith-malware-has-infected-16-android-apps-uninstall-these-from-your-smartphone-immediately-1567708-2019-07-12>
Infection includes Google Store apps.
--Ludo Master - New Ludo Game 2019 For Free
--Sky Warriors: General Attack
--Color Phone Flash - Call Screen Theme
--Bio Blast - Infinity Battle Shoot virus
--Shooting Jet
--Photo Projector
--Gun Hero - Gunman Game for Free
--Cooking Witch
--Blockman Go: Free Realms & Mini Games
--Crazy Juicer - Hot Knife Hit Game & Juice Blast
--Clash of Virus
--Angry Virus
--Rabbit Temple
--Star Range
--Kiss Game: Touch Her Heart
--Girl Cloth Xray Scan Simulator
More than 10,000,000 installs from the Google Store. If you installed
any of these apps on your android phone, you were pwned.
#NeverAndroid
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