Id Theft Protect
Home Identity Fraud Statistics Learn More About ID Theft FAQ About Us Contact Us
Sign In
Register
7th September 2010
07.09.2010 Cyber disaster by RIPE averted
IDENTITY THEFT and IDENTITY FRAUD News a...
07.09.2010 Business and trademark ID theft
IDENTITY THEFT and IDENTITY FRAUD News a...
07.09.2010 Experian launch ProtectMyID
IDENTITY THEFT and IDENTITY FRAUD News a...
More   More News
Identity Fraud Statistics
Some 30 million records on consumers have been exposed in the US so far this year.
(Identity Theft Resource Center, October 2008)
spacer
The average cost of identity theft and resulting fraud in cases solved by the US Secret Service over a six-year period was more than $31,000.
(CIMIP Study, 2007)
More  
Search ID Theft Protect
go
ID THEFT PROTECT - News and Reviews 07/09/2010
Google Android wallpaper malware
28.07.2010

IDENTITY THEFT and IDENTITY FRAUD News and views - This daily news service searches the web to bring you relevant news to your desktop


It's not porn, but it is still something Apple is probably going to try to make hay out of. At the always interesting Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday, Kevin MaHaffey, chief technology officer at mobile security Lookout noted a group of Android wallpaper apps by the same developer which are stealing data from users that install them.

The innocent looking wallpaper apps collect your phone’s SIM card number, browsing history, text messages, subscriber identification, and even your voicemail password. It sends the data to a web site, xxx.imnet.us. That site is apparently owned by someone in Shenzhen, China (ironically, where a lot of Apple products are assembled).

The wallpaper apps are by developer jackeey,wallpaper and can be found here. We assume they will be expunged from the Android Market, soon.

Unlike Apple and the App Store, Google doesn't vet applications in its Android Market. Instead, when you install an application, a list of "permissions" the application needs are displayed. Of course, much like a EULA, users frequently don't read that information.

According to Lookout, the apps have been downloaded at least 1.1 million times. The developer chose a number of popular themes, such as Dragonball Z, Bleach, and Naruto for his apps. If you have anything from this developer on your Android phone, you should uninstall it immediately.

Lookout security has a line of smartphone anti-malware applications, for Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile. We can guess why there is no iOS version; the app probably requires deeper integration with the OS than Apple will allow.

Source: ID Theft Protect / Black Hat

Search Related News: cell, mobile, android, google

Join our Twitter feed!

avast! Free Antivirus

Search more news

Our Promotions - Be safe when shopping in 2010!