Heads up Google lovers; a rogue Android app has been tweaked by hackers in order to hijack your smartphone and run up a huge texting bill.
Vikram Thakur, security response manager at Symantec, said that the app named Steamy Window is a free program that Chinese hackers have modified, then re-released into the wild.
The Trojan planted by the malware-infected Steamy Windows can install other applications, mess with the phone’s browser bookmarks and even navigate to web sites and silently send text message.
It's not the first example of malicious Android software. Handsets running on the Google OS are an attractive target for hackers, Thakur states that this is because of both their increasing popularity and because, unlike Apple’s iOS, users can install apps downloaded from third-party distribution sites.
“Where there’s honey, there’s bees,” said Thakur.
The advice from Symantec is that if you're adamant that you want to download a third-party app look at the permissions the app requests when it installs as a rogue app will request more permissions than a legitimate version of the app.
Source: Computer-World