Posted on 19.02.2015 A new Android Trojan that tricks users into believing they have shut their device down while it continues working, and is able to silently make calls, send messages, take photos and perform many other tasks, has been discovered and analyzed by AVG researchers.
They dubbed it, and AVG's security solutions detect it as PowerOffHijack.
PowerOffHijack has been discovered in China, where it has already infected over 10,000 devices. It is apparently being propagated via third-party online app stores, but the researchers haven't mentioned what apps it masquerades as.
The Trojan is capable of infecting Android versions below v5.0 (Lollipop). Full Article
New Android Trojan fakes device shut down, spies on users
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By Jeremy Kirk
Next time you turn off your Android phone, you might want take the battery out just to be certain.
Security vendor AVG has spotted a malicious program that fakes the sequence a user sees when they shut off their phone, giving it freedom to move around on the device and steal data.
When someone presses the power button on a device, a fake dialog box is shown. The malware then mimics the shutdown animation and appears to be off, AVG's mobile malware research team said in a blog post.
"Although the screen is black, it is still on," they said. "While the phone is in this state, the malware can make outgoing calls, take pictures and perform many other tasks without notifying the user."
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The malware works in the background after pretending to shut down a phone, AVG says.
Next time you turn off your Android phone, you might want take the battery out just to be certain.
Security vendor AVG has spotted a malicious program that fakes the sequence a user sees when they shut off their phone, giving it freedom to move around on the device and steal data.
When someone presses the power button on a device, a fake dialog box is shown. The malware then mimics the shutdown animation and appears to be off, AVG's mobile malware research team said in a blog post.
"Although the screen is black, it is still on," they said. "While the phone is in this state, the malware can make outgoing calls, take pictures and perform many other tasks without notifying the user."
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