UPDATED 14:44 EDT / JUNE 13 2011

Google Responds as More Malware Attacks End Users Trust Factor

Google pulled 10 malicious apps from the Android Market, after the latest mobile vulnerability was revealed by Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor at North Carolina State University. Jiang published an analysis of rogue code – codenamed Plankton – the malware he discovered in 10 apps.  He reported his findings to Google:

“It has the ability to remotely access a command-and-control [C&C] server for instructions, and upload additional payloads,” Brandt said in an interview Friday. “It uses a very stealthy method to push any malware it wants to phone.”

Plankton is different than some of the Android malware we’ve see lately. It doesn’t need a root Android vulnerability itself in order take control of an infected device, but rather stealthily downloads harmful files from  a hacker controlled server once you download an app containing Plankton.  All 10 apps in Jiang’s list fall under the category of cheats and add-ons to Angry Birds.

Jiang also reported yet another malware to Google on the same day he submitted his findings about Plankton. DroidKongFu has reportedly infected several apps in Chinese app stores, and comes up as “YZHCSMS.”  The Trojan horse, which is reportedly meant to generate massive phone bills by sending hidden text messages to premium numbers was reported by Jiang two days before Plankton ad DroidKongFu.

Security is a major concern in mobile, and some are making the most to legitimately monetize that. Zenprise, an enterprise security management solutions provider that released Zenprise Secure Mobile Gateway, a offering designed to fortify mobile connected clouds .

The new offers comes in response to a lot of market demand, driven by high profile issues such as all the concerns regarding how Android and iOS devices store users’ location data. Nevertheless, iOS as well as Android are still very popular – both among users and developers. A study by Piper Jaffray analyst George Muster found that 47 percent of developers surveyed at WWDC are on Android too.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU