Malware writers exploit Instagram craze to distribute SMS Trojan
In an attempt to take advantage of the popularity of free photo-sharing app Instagram among smartphone users, malware writers have created fake Instagram websites to distribute Android Trojan horses, according to security researchers from antivirus firms Sophos and Trend Micro.
Originally developed for Apple's iOS devices, Instagram allows smartphone users to take photos, apply various digital filters to them and share the resulting images on social networking websites. There are over 30 million registered Instagram accounts as of April 2012, according to its creators.
At the beginning of April, an Android version of the app was released on Google Play and it was downloaded more than one million times during the first 12 hours. The company that developed Instagram was acquired by Facebook for almost $1 billion on April 12, which attracted the attention of the media and, as it usually happens with popular events, that of cybercriminals.
