The mobile applications have innocuous-sounding names like Flappy Birr Dog and Flappy Bird, but something sinister lurks inside. Spyware masquerading as those Android apps and others were downloaded over 100,000 times from the Google Play store last year, cybersecurity company Trend Micro said Thursday. Google has removed all of the apps from the store, but the episode is a reminder of the ease with which crooks can hide their malware in popular app markets. The spyware is capable of siphoning call logs, SMS conversations, and clipboard items from a user’s phone, according to Trend Micro. Users in scores of countries around the world were affected, researchers said, with a third of infections taking place in India. The so-called MobSTSPY spyware uses a cloud-messaging service to send the stolen information to a command-and-control server, registering the infected device. The malware then lies in wait for the attacker to send it commands from […]
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