Android Trojans spread by Bluetooth, hijack bank codes

[FarCenter]

A Trojan that spreads itself via Bluetooth and another that's received a mobile upgrade to steal SMS banking codes have been discovered by security researchers.

"Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a" was recently discovered by Kaspersky Lab in an Android application. The malware is a multi-functional Trojan that can send SMS messages to premium rate numbers, download malware to a phone and infect other phones through Bluetooth.

After receiving a command from a server operated by a cyber criminal, the malware scans for devices around it with open Bluetooth connections and attempts to send a bad app to them, Kaspersky Lab Expert Roman Unuchek explained in a blog.

When Bluetooth was introduced, there were some experiments with using it to infect machines, but nothing similar to what Kaspersky has discovered. "In this incarnation, it's definitely novel," Ken Baylor, research vice president for NSS Labs, said in an interview. "It's something we haven't seen in Bluetooth before, other than a proof concept," he said, "and we've never seen it in an Android implementation."

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/061013-android-trojans-spread-by-bluetooth-270695.html

[DCKit]

1. There's a reason my cell phone only makes telephone calls. nt

[kelliekat44]

2. Damn government!!! nt

[FarCenter]

3. It's all a Norwegian plot nt