Six arrested over cash-extorting Japanese Android porn virus
Another sign in the disturbing trend of viruses spreading to smartphones.
Six men have been arrested in Japan for creating a piece of "malware" that successfully extorted cash from hapless smartphone users.
The BBC reports the men created a piece of software that posed as a video app.
When people downloaded the app to their Google Android-based smartphones, it did not show adult flicks but rather flashing message demanding $NZ1500.
Many paid up, and the malware gang collected around $300,000 from punters desperate to rid the software from their mobiles.
Mobile phones were once immune to viruses, but as they have become essentially pocket computers, feed by download stores, virus and malware writers have begun to circle.
Google's Play service (formerly Android Market) has been criticised for its freewheeling approach to authorising apps, while Apple maintains a much slower but more thorough approach, requiring each app to be reviewed and approved before going into the iTunes AppStore.
But although a genuine smartphone virus threat exists, Symantec and other security software makers have been accused of over-hyping it to sell more of their new line of anti-malware software for mobiles.
NBR staff
Wed, 20 Jun 2012
Wed, 20 Jun 2012
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Six arrested over cash-extorting Japanese Android porn virus
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