Critical.
Authoritative.
Strategic.
Subscribe to CIO Magazine »

Spammers impersonate well-known developers to publish rogue apps on Android Market

Spammers use font tricks to deceive Android Market users into trusting rogue app developers

Spammers are impersonating well-known Android software developers in order to distribute rogue apps through the official Android Market.

Security researchers from antivirus firm Trend Micro have identified a developer named Rovio MobiIe Ltd. in the Android Market, which had a significant number of rogue applications in its portfolio.

Some users might immediately recognize Rovio Mobile as the name of the company behind one of the world's most popular mobile games -- "Angry Birds."

However, in this case, the letter "l" from the original developer's name was replaced with a capital "i," which has a nearly identical visual representation under some fonts.

The apps distributed by Rovio MobiIe, with the capital "I", through the Android Market were fake copies of legitimate applications that directed users to spam websites.

While these apps are not as dangerous as the premium-rate SMS Trojans distributed from unofficial app stores, they are still malicious in nature and are created to deceive users.

Last week, Google revealed a service called Bouncer, which automatically scans the Android Market for malicious apps. The scanner is capable of executing apps in a virtual environment in order to monitor their behavior, but it doesn't seem to have caught the rogue ones found by Trend Micro.

This is probably because displaying links and opening Web pages is common behavior for legitimate applications as well. "We expect that more cybercriminals will continue with this method, so it is very important for users to be informed of how they can avoid being victimized," Trend Micro threats analyst Kervin Alintanahin said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Installing only apps distributed through the Android Market is not enough to ensure one's protection. Users should also read an application's reviews and carefully consider its permissions before deciding to install it on their devices.

Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.

More about: Google, Trend Micro
References show all

Comments

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
Users posting comments agree to the CIO comments policy.
Login or register to link comments to your user profile, or you may also post a comment without being logged in.
Related Coverage
Related Whitepapers
Latest Stories
Community Comments
Tags: malware, mobile, mobile applications, mobile security, security, trend micro
Latest Blog Posts
Whitepapers
  • Blurring boundaries: The disappearing gap between work and home life
    Call it multi-tasking, life-splicing or bleisure but increasingly, fuelled by advances in technology, employees are blurring the boundaries between home and work. ‘Generation Standby’ employees, never truly ‘switched off’ and always ready to be called upon, are now enjoying, and expecting, greater levels of flexibility and mobility than ever before. Read on.
    Learn more »
  • Best Practices for Secure Enterprise Content Mobility
    To secure mobile devices while enabling employees to share data securely, organisations need a comprehensive and flexible solution for secure enterprise content mobility. A secure enterprise content mobility solution complements Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions and enables mobile workers to easily share data with other authorised users, while ensuring that data is always secure and IT operations are always compliant. Read this whitepaper to learn: How the popularity of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) is creating new security challenges; Why MDM is useful, but not sufficient; How enterprise content mobility provides an essential layer of security and control for organisations with mobile users.
    Learn more »
  • IDC Insight: V-Ray Gives Symantec NetBackup a Competitive Advantage Today and into the Future
    Over a decade ago, Veritas software announced NetBackup FlashBackup to address the millions of small files problem, which had been and often remains the nemesis to fast and efficient backup of large file servers. Today, the FlashBackup technology is used to provide a logical understanding of what is stored with a VMDK- or VHD-image-level backup, without the necessity to install an agent inside each virtual machine. Read more.
    Learn more »
All whitepapers
rhs_login_lockGet exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis.