Wednesday 6 July 2016

More than 13 lakh Android phones in India affected by this malware

HummingBad Android malware was first seen in February this year that has infected more than 10 million smartphones, according to security firm Check Point. The firm notes that users most affected by the malware are in China and India.

According to Check Point, the group behind the malware is a group of developers of the mobile phone company China Yingmob ad server. The company has several teams developing platforms ad tracking and legitimate; however, there is said to be a specific group of people within the organization that is responsible for this malicious software. Check Point he says that the malware responsible for developing the equipment is HummingBad 'Team Overseas Development Platform', which includes four groups with a total of 25 employees.



HummingBad attempts to gain root access on the device in order to generate revenue for fraudulent advertising by installing additional fraudulent (and malicious) applications. Yingmob generates as much as $ 300,000 (approximately Rs. 20,257 million) per month in fraudulent advertising revenue through this malware, Check Point says.

The malware has now spread across 20 countries, but the largest number of users affected are in India and China. Check Point says 1.35 million (13.5 lakh) smartphones in India are affected by malware HummingBad, while China has users most affected 1.6 million. It is interesting that most of the affected Android devices are running older versions. About 50 percent of affected devices running Android KitKat, while 40 percent of affected users are running JellyBean on their smartphones.

Google recognized the threat and confirmed that it was aware of it. "The company has been aware of this family of malware are constantly evolving and improving our systems that detect it. We block facilities actively infected applications to keep users and secure information," Google spokesperson told CNET.

According to Check Point, HummingBad installed more than 50,000 fraudulent applications per day. These applications over 20 million ads are shown each day, generating 2.5 million clicks per day through illegitimate methods. While this malware minted an approximate amount of $ 10,000 per day for Yingmob, it gets 10 million Android smartphones and sensitive data stored on them in grave danger.

If you are an Android smartphone user you are seeing unnecessary advertisements, the smartphone could potentially be affected by malware HummingBad. To detect this malware, use a security application that can detect malicious activity on smartphones and flag. Options like Avast, AVG, and the lookout may be considered.

If you are not HummingBad malware on your phone, Dan Wiley Check Point says its only option is the factory restored the device, which means that you will lose all data, applications and stored passwords. It is recommended that you back up all data, contacts and other accessories before selecting the reset option. Wiley also advises against downloading applications in stores are not trustworthy. Google reviews the applications on the Play Store official, but the same can not be said of other unofficial stores.

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