PCWorld Forums: Android Smartphones Hijacked By First Mobile Botnet - PCWorld Forums

Post your comments for Android Smartphones Hijacked by First Mobile Botnet here

John Dunn, you're posting old, inaccurate information. The researchers who first reported this (which included Microsoft, surprise... surprise) have admitted they had no reason to believe the spam was coming from Android devices other than the email signature. Google countered that these messages don't actually fit the profile for those generated by Android devices; the researchers have since backpeddled and now state the messages may be from PCs using an Android signature to avoid AV detection.

This article is totally irresponsible given the contrary evidence that's been available for almost a day.

Per your sister publication, ComputerWorld: Google says spam not coming from Android botnets

"Our analysis suggests that spammers are using infected computers and a fake mobile signature to try to bypass anti-spam mechanisms in the email platform they're using," a Google spokesman said via email in response to security researchers from Microsoft and antivirus firm Sophos who first identified what they believed to be the handiwork of an Android botnet.


In a new blog post Thursday, Zink said that it is entirely possible that the Android Message-IDs from the spam email headers and the "Sent from Yahoo! Mail on Android" taglines were added by Windows malware as part of an elaborate deception to make it appear that the spam was coming from Android devices. However, it's similarly possible that these messages appear in this way because they do in fact come from Android devices, he said.

This post has been edited by PowerShot: 06 July 2012 - 09:40 AM