[AusNOG] First Android Virus

[Nathan Gardiner]

I love that this is being reported as a virus, when it quite clearly does
not possess any properties of a virus or worm, is not capable of
transferring between devices autonomously, and is essentially a Trojan Horse
which can only be encountered if you're intelligent enough to download .apk
packages from dodgy Chinese websites, instead of using the ubiquitous app
market.

It is understandable that the numbers are pretty high in Asian countries,
though. Manufacturers of Android devices for cheap knockoff phones or
tablets which are not members of Google's Open Handset Alliance are not able
to get access to the market app legally and users often have to go on the
hunt for packages elsewhere.

And in reality, I can see limited uses for a botnet of mobile phones. You
could do mass call or SMS spamming, maybe force some phones to call premium
numbers (I doubt you'd get away with that for long), but I would argue that
regardless of theoretical bandwidth potential of HSUPA, you're not going to
get anything in terms of DDoS that you wouldn't have access to with a much
smaller botnet of residential DSL/cable/fibre windows users.


Nathan

On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 4:31 PM, Darren Moss <Darren.Moss at em3.com.au> wrote:

> In China, the first registered Android phone virus.
>
> Interesting.
> http://m.stuff.co.nz/technology/gadgets/4505552/Virus-hits-android-phones
>
>
> Regards,
>
>
> Darren Moss
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