Think before you download. If years of using a personal computer hasn’t taught you not to blindly download everything you see, then perhaps something else will. The computer world is increasingly going mobile, thanks to the rise of smartphones like Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone. Wherever the computer-using public goes, hackers will follow. Security firm Lookout Mobile Security has called a new Android virus, Geinimi, “the most sophisticated Android malware we’ve seen to date.” That’s right, your Android mobile phone can be hacked, just like everything else
“Once the malware is installed on a user’s phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone,” Lookout said. “Geinimi’s author(s) have raised the sophistication bar significantly over and above previously observed Android malware by employing techniques to obfuscate its activities.”
The culprit, of course, is virus-infected smartphone apps. And guess what country the virus-infected smartphone apps come from? Why, it’d be China, of course. Why wouldn’t hacker central be the source of the first smartphone viruses? This is a country that was able to hijack the whole Internet, there’s no doubt they’re on the cutting edge of hacker technology.
The virus is delivered to Android phones via repackaged flash games, including such stellar titles as Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense, and Baseball Superstars 2010. The original versions of the game in Google’s Android Marketplace are not affected by the virus.
Tags: Android, smart phone viruses, Android smartphones threatened by viruses, smartphones can get viruses, viruses put into smartphone apps, Android apps infected with viruses, China, Geinimi, Trojans, Trojan virus affecting Android smartphones, Lookout Mobile Security
