App Virus Warning "Smart Phones"

App Virus Warning "Smart Phones"

I work for Sprint and this was on our company web site this morning. I just wanted to spread the word.

The Super Bowl is over, but fraudsters are still preying on our love for the game of football. A fake version of Madden NFL 12 application (app) for Android is spreading across the Internet, leaving unsuspecting fans with some major penalties.
Symantec reported that the malicious smart phone app installs a Trojan on users' devices that automatically sends unauthorized text messages to premium-rate numbers in Belgium, Switzerland, Sierra Leone and Romania, among other destinations, running up the victims' phone bills without their knowledge.

Once the app is off and running, "it has full control of the device," Symantec said in a blog post, and is able to root the phone, meaning it can attain administrative access to the phone or even completely wipe the phone's operating system.

The hard-hitting action doesn't stop there: The Trojan hiding in the malicious Madden app, in addition to running up victims' phone bills, (and blocking them from seeing that there phone has sent any of these premium-rate texts) also attempts to connect to a remote server, which can then feed it more nasty commands to execute.

How it works

Consumer installs fake version of Madden NFL 12 (5 MB).
Once app is installed, nothing happens ... no game appears on your device, but your phone is now infected with the Trojan.
This Trojan includes code that allows it to send and receive SMS or text messages.
The Trojan determines which country your device is located in and then sends a text to the premium rate number corresponding to the country where the device is located.

How to protect yourself
To protect yourself from Trojans like this one, make sure you only download apps from Android's official App Market, and read the user reviews and comments before doing so. Also, make sure you run anti-virus software on your smart phone. Symantec offers tips on how to detect malicious apps before they infect your mobile device.