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Trojan Sends Premium-rate SMS Messages, Aims at European and Canadian Android Users

November 29, 2011

Trojan Sends Premium-rate SMS Messages, Aims at European and Canadian Android Users

By: Lucian Constantin, PC World

A new Android Trojan program that poses as an SMS management application is sending text messages to predefined premium-rate numbers in Europe and Canada, according to security researchers from Kaspersky Lab.

Credit-stealing Trojans that send SMS messages or make calls to premium-rate numbers were first designed for Nokia's Symbian and Java-powered mobile OSes and have existed for years in countries like China or Russia.

However, the rapid adoption rate of Android devices and the openness of Google's mobile platform has motivated malware writers to look for new victims in the smartphone market.

Until earlier this year, the vast majority of Android Trojans found in the wild targeted Chinese and Russian users mainly because installing apps from unofficial sources is very common in these countries. However, according to Kaspersky Lab senior malware analyst Denis Maslennikov, Android malware writers have shifted their attention toward the international market in recent months.

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Trojan Sends Premium-rate SMS Messages, Aims at European and Canadian Android Users

Trojan Sends Premium-rate SMS Messages, Aims at European and Canadian Android Users
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Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. With over a billion devices protected to date from emerging cyberthreats and targeted attacks, Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise is constantly transforming into innovative solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection, specialized security products and services, as well as Cyber Immune solutions to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. We help over 200,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com.

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