Mother Of All Android Malware Has Arrived: Roots Phone, Steals Data, Opens Backdoor.

[carlz28]

What is more interesting to me from that article is that Google has access to a user's phone and is able to remove, and i assume modify or add or change, code/apps/etc. without notification or consent, If what I interpeted from "as well as remotely removing them from users devices" is correct.

Very long sentence

Of course Google, but more likely your carrier, would have the ability to do this. They can send updates to our phones, disconnect service, limit data speeds etc.
Removing/changing data or any other form of file corruption could easily be done by the people whom we pay every month.
It was only a matter of time before this happened on a 3rd party scale. I'm surprised it took this long!

 

[moosez3]

I just joined 2day,so I no this will b taken care of b4 the bionic comes out.I'm so glade I joined this site,I've leared so much just by reading about droid products.So I'm looking 4ward to owning my 1st droid phone

That was kind of painful to read.

If anyone knows how to detect this other than looking at code, and how to stop it that would be awesome. This is very bad news for Android, as I can no longer feel safe using apps that typing in passwords is required... which is about 50 apps

 

[AlexSB]

Reading this made me question the ESPN Score Center app since the dev name is ESPN Inc**

I uninstalled it

Liberated Droid II

 

[Big Ry]

They should do some kind of verification like paypal does, so we all know who's safe.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[Skotos]

You guys just need to understand you can't be completely disappointed with Droid for this. Its not them sending you malware is it? I do believe you all should be upset with the idiot who made the malware.

Sent By Me!

 

[jeff0r3]

The real question is, what can users do to protect themselves from this happening to their Android device. If there is someone out there who coded this, then this will open the door to more people trying to exploit user data. We need to know what we can do to prevent this from happening. ie.. would running lookout prevent situations like this?

 

[iPhoneBlowz]

Pretty scary. I don't run Lookout or anything like it, but I'd like to find out if anyone who does run security software had a detection. Rooting the device should throw up a huge flag.

Lookout was just updated. I found one of the infected apps.

 

[Backnblack]

The real question is, what can users do to protect themselves from this happening to their Android device.

Pay attentions to what you install....It's the same as a PC.
Don't download and install everything that looks cool....

 

[piquat]

Pretty scary. I don't run Lookout or anything like it, but I'd like to find out if anyone who does run security software had a detection. Rooting the device should throw up a huge flag.

Lookout was just updated. I found one of the infected apps.

Well, I guess I'll install Lookout now. /sigh

 

[corman324]

mmmm i feel paranoia setting in... :icon_eek:

 

[christim]

The real question is, what can users do to protect themselves from this happening to their Android device.

Pay attentions to what you install....It's the same as a PC.
Don't download and install everything that looks cool....

Good advice.

You also don't have to be the first kid on the block to try everything. Wait for reviews. I don't know how long these "stolen" apps have been on the market for but fortunately for the community there are some folks out there who poke sticks at everything and discovered this. I can understand the market being open, but also could see some of the profits from the market being spent on a Google team (for the Google Market) that spends time reviewing the code of apps being released. All it would take would be one market to do this and then all the other markets would have to follow suite if they wanted to be known as a safe location to grab apps from. This way if you grabbed any app that had been out for a month or so you could be reasonably sure it was safe.

 

[SkullOne]

They should do some kind of verification like paypal does, so we all know who's safe.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

This is proof that Google seriously needs (something we have all known for a long time) a vetting process of some sort for the app store.

Do we know what permissions these files asked for? Did they ask for over the top permissions like access to just about everything? Access to nothing? Access to just the Internet?

I wonder how many people are actually going to start running apps like Lookout now?

 

[BigMcGuire]

Are we really that surprised? It was only a matter of time... Virus makers program viruses mostly for the most popular OS. This is why Windows has a lot more viruses than Mac. Why? Because why write a virus for 10% of the population? I'm not surprised. Maybe what surprises me the most is how long it took...

 

[AlexSB]

Are we really that surprised? It was only a matter of time... Virus makers program viruses mostly for the most popular OS. This is why Windows has a lot more viruses than Mac. Why? Because why write a virus for 10% of the population? I'm not surprised. Maybe what surprises me the most is how long it took...

That's true, but google has taken some action, they've jus recently pulled some apps from the market. They should really start beefing up their android market security. Macs are over the 20% mark now though

Liberated Droid II

 

[Backnblack]

I wonder how many people are actually going to start running apps like Lookout now?

Not I........ Still see no need for it on My Devices.