Cybercriminals always find new and innovative ways to sneak into computing devices. Mobility devices such as smartphones are now on the radar of the cyber crooks who are increasingly targeting the unpatched and unprotected smartphones. Smartphones can store a lot of data and valuable information, which, if fallen into the wrong hands, could make the owners pay a hefty price. Mobile trojan scams are on a rapid swift in recent days, however, despite of growing attacks on smartphones, users rely on free security tools which do not ensure full security from malware.
Since the penetration of Smart Phones in the market, there have been a growing incidents of high risk of the Trojan programmers infecting the Mobile operating system. An Android Trojan which displays unwanted ads and installs nuisance software on mobile devices has been discovered in all smartphones. According to the research, more than 15,000 spam e-mails containing malicious files have hit the inboxes of Android users in the last few days
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The Trojan module is able to “remotely update the operating system, collect information, display notifications (including advertising ones), and make mobile payments.” Once a user has installed one of the malicious apps, the Trojan collects nearly 30 different types of information about the user’s device and transmits them to a remote server operated by the attacker.
In some cases, the virus only attacks web browsers instead of taking over the whole phone screen. Android Trojan hijacks Internet and doesn’t allow the user to go online anymore. It also requests users to pay to full access to the phone. The Trojans malware can send SMS to premium numbers, can read your SMS, and even block your SMS. Also, it can request USSD codes to activate value added service to cost your money in the Mobile account.
Some Trojan can take Root privileges using vulnerability in your Android Phone and can do any actions. If they gain Android Device Manager Privileges, users can’t detect and uninstall Trojan viruses from your Android Phone. Even some other Android Trojan can steal your private information and leach mobile data. Once this Trojan has collected all of your personal information, those details are sent back to a database where the information is logged. From there, the hackers of the Trojan can collect those details and use them elsewhere.
In order to remove this Trojan, a factory reset is recommended, though it is advised to take the phone to an expert, as different Smart Phones have different methods of initiating a Factory reset or Safe Mode. Here are few Safety Tips to prevent infection.
# Always install apps from Google play and official sites.
# Turn off Bluetooth if not in use.
# Install reliable mobile security software that automatically scans apps before they run for the first time.
# Take regular backups of your important data on your phone on cloud or external storage devices.
# Before connecting your mobile devices to any computer, ensure that the latter is secure with multi-layered antivirus software.
# Avoid clicking links in unknown and unsolicited e-mails and SMSs.
# Have your mobile apps updated to their latest version. And ensure that your mobile OS is updated too.