[AusNOG] First Android Virus

[Richard Bayliss]

Other media outlets (like PC World) correctly originally reported this as Malware.

> 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),

Hence the bot-net like capability. What if you infected 10M of the 700M mobile users on china mobile and then used the command channel to coordinate each phone to trigger $10 worth of premium services at the same time?

Just saying,

Cheers
Rich


From: Nathan Gardiner <ngardiner at gmail.com<mailto:ngardiner at gmail.com>>
Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2010 19:53:31 -0800
To: "Darren.Moss at em3.com.au<mailto:Darren.Moss at em3.com.au>" <Darren.Moss at em3.com.au<mailto:Darren.Moss at em3.com.au>>
Cc: "ausnog at ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at ausnog.net>" <ausnog at ausnog.net<mailto:ausnog at ausnog.net>>
Subject: Re: [AusNOG] First Android Virus

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<mailto: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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