Half a million Huawei Android phones hit by Joker malware
Security researchers have found over 500,000 Huawei smartphone users have downloaded applications tainted with the Joker malware that unwittingly subscribes users to premium mobile services.
The Joker family of malware has been infecting apps on Google's Play Store for the last few years, but this is the first instance of it cropping up on Huawei’s platform. Huawei users are currently unable to access the Google Play Store due to US trade sanctions, and instead use the company's in-house AppGallery platform.
"Doctor Web malware analysts come across new versions and modifications of these [Joker] trojans almost daily. They were formerly seen most often on the official Android app store―Google Play. The attackers, however, have apparently decided to expand the scale of their activity and shift their attention to alternative catalogs supported by major players on the mobile device market," noted the researchers at antivirus company Doctor Web who uncovered the threat..
