Hacking Android Devices: It's Not Just Apps You Need to Worry About
It’s not just malicious apps you need to be wary of infecting your smartphone. Now, navigating to poisoned websites are a threat, too.
Security researchers have discovered a new malware targeting Android devices that doesn’t take the usual route of embedding itself in an app. The malware, dubbed “NotCompatible,” is instead tucked into websites that try to push the malware onto visitors’ devices, representing a dangerous new technique by hackers to try and access personal data, according to research from Lookout Security and separate findings from Symantec Corp.
Fortunately, the malware isn’t very stealthy. To get infected , you would need to approve the download of the application, which masquerades as a security update. And the handful of known sites distributing it have low traffic, according to Lookout. “This threat does not currently appear to cause any direct harm to a target device, but could potentially be used to gain illicit access to private networks by turning an infected Android device into a proxy,” Lookout researchers wrote on the company’s blog.
