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Microsoft engineer discovers Android spam botnet
Summary: A Microsoft engineer has discovered and identified an Android botnet that is sending out spam on an industrial and international scale. Please only install Android apps that you trust.
By Emil Protalinski for Zero Day | July 4, 2012 -- Updated 15:34 GMT (08:34 PDT)
Microsoft engineer Terry Zink has discovered Android devices are being used to send spam. He has identified an international Android botnet and outlined the details on his MSDN blog.
Android malware is on the rise. There have been many fake versions of Android apps (see links below) that try to cash in by sending expensive SMS messages. This is different.
In this case, the money is being generated after spam e-mails are sent from Yahoo Mail servers on Android devices. A closer look at the e-mails' header information shows all the messages come from compromised Yahoo accounts. Furthermore, they are also stamped with the "Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android" signature.
As such, Zink believes a cybercriminal has developed a new piece of malware that can access Yahoo Mail accounts on Android devices and send spam messages from them. Since this is happening on a large scale, it follows the perpetrator has also linked the Android devices together to create a spam botnet, a technique often used when trying to monetize spam; it's all about volume, volume, volume.
More details at:
http://www.zdnet.com...net-7000000272/
Summary: A Microsoft engineer has discovered and identified an Android botnet that is sending out spam on an industrial and international scale. Please only install Android apps that you trust.
By Emil Protalinski for Zero Day | July 4, 2012 -- Updated 15:34 GMT (08:34 PDT)
Microsoft engineer Terry Zink has discovered Android devices are being used to send spam. He has identified an international Android botnet and outlined the details on his MSDN blog.
Android malware is on the rise. There have been many fake versions of Android apps (see links below) that try to cash in by sending expensive SMS messages. This is different.
In this case, the money is being generated after spam e-mails are sent from Yahoo Mail servers on Android devices. A closer look at the e-mails' header information shows all the messages come from compromised Yahoo accounts. Furthermore, they are also stamped with the "Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android" signature.
As such, Zink believes a cybercriminal has developed a new piece of malware that can access Yahoo Mail accounts on Android devices and send spam messages from them. Since this is happening on a large scale, it follows the perpetrator has also linked the Android devices together to create a spam botnet, a technique often used when trying to monetize spam; it's all about volume, volume, volume.
More details at:
http://www.zdnet.com...net-7000000272/
