3.3 Trojan Programs in Mobile Communication Systems
253
know your enemy, let us try and understand why virus writers keep improving and
refining smartphone viruses year by year. All known viruses can be divided into the
following large groups.
Advertisers
Such applications can promise to show you, for example, the list of visitors of
your page in social media, and force ads down your throat. Advertisers operate in the
following manner: they download certain applications (authors of the programs pay
for this as promotion), click on the ads (authors pay for it as well), and open pages
in the browser (once again, paid by the authors). In general, you don’t really have to
worry if you got infected with an advertiser—that is, if it only shows ads, of course.
But the traffic is not unlimited, and it is unpleasant when intruders capitalize on you
like that.
Zombie (botnet)
Example: Android.Sockbot.1. This thing is capable of using the digital analog
of voodoo magic: it turns the infected device into a zombie. Or, to be precise, into
a proxy server that allows the distributor of the malicious code to connect to other
computers anonymously, as well as steal traffic and use the device for DDoS attacks.
Just take a closer look at your smartphone: perhaps it is taking Korean servers by
assault right now along with its companions in misfortune. This poses almost no
danger to you (you won’t get in prison for that), but the performance, independence,
and mobile traffic of the smartphone will be impaired severely.
Ransomware
This scheme has been known since the previous decade: you download some garbage
that obtains root access to your smartphone. The malicious app blocks all your
attempts to launch other applications and warns you that you have violated the law
and need to pay a fine. As a rule, they suggest sending money to a phone number
and finding the unlock code on the bill. By today, virus writers have modified the
schemes: applications are created, which autonomously download other malware,
disguising it as system utilities. That is, if the user deletes the patient zero (i.e., the
application which started the infection), the malware will keep living in the phone
and begging for money.
Notifier
The aim of this program is to carefully and silently notify its “master” about
everything that happens inside your smartphone, to build a database. The collected
information may include passwords from social media accounts and banking applications, embarrassing photos, correspondence, phone numbers, and geolocation—all
the information that you naively believe to be hidden from someone else’s eyes. Of
course, if you are a politician, a sports star, or a Hollywood actress, the chances that
your photos will be of interest to intruders increase greatly. However, practice shows
that private photos and other information get stolen from regular people as well.
After that, they are posted online or used for blackmailing. That’s not very pleasant.
253
know your enemy, let us try and understand why virus writers keep improving and
refining smartphone viruses year by year. All known viruses can be divided into the
following large groups.
Advertisers
Such applications can promise to show you, for example, the list of visitors of
your page in social media, and force ads down your throat. Advertisers operate in the
following manner: they download certain applications (authors of the programs pay
for this as promotion), click on the ads (authors pay for it as well), and open pages
in the browser (once again, paid by the authors). In general, you don’t really have to
worry if you got infected with an advertiser—that is, if it only shows ads, of course.
But the traffic is not unlimited, and it is unpleasant when intruders capitalize on you
like that.
Zombie (botnet)
Example: Android.Sockbot.1. This thing is capable of using the digital analog
of voodoo magic: it turns the infected device into a zombie. Or, to be precise, into
a proxy server that allows the distributor of the malicious code to connect to other
computers anonymously, as well as steal traffic and use the device for DDoS attacks.
Just take a closer look at your smartphone: perhaps it is taking Korean servers by
assault right now along with its companions in misfortune. This poses almost no
danger to you (you won’t get in prison for that), but the performance, independence,
and mobile traffic of the smartphone will be impaired severely.
Ransomware
This scheme has been known since the previous decade: you download some garbage
that obtains root access to your smartphone. The malicious app blocks all your
attempts to launch other applications and warns you that you have violated the law
and need to pay a fine. As a rule, they suggest sending money to a phone number
and finding the unlock code on the bill. By today, virus writers have modified the
schemes: applications are created, which autonomously download other malware,
disguising it as system utilities. That is, if the user deletes the patient zero (i.e., the
application which started the infection), the malware will keep living in the phone
and begging for money.
Notifier
The aim of this program is to carefully and silently notify its “master” about
everything that happens inside your smartphone, to build a database. The collected
information may include passwords from social media accounts and banking applications, embarrassing photos, correspondence, phone numbers, and geolocation—all
the information that you naively believe to be hidden from someone else’s eyes. Of
course, if you are a politician, a sports star, or a Hollywood actress, the chances that
your photos will be of interest to intruders increase greatly. However, practice shows
that private photos and other information get stolen from regular people as well.
After that, they are posted online or used for blackmailing. That’s not very pleasant.