As the popularity and the sales of 'powerful-handheld computers' boom had been very obvious in 2010 statistics in the field of mobile devices, and consumers had also been putting progressively more data in pockets, hackers and marketers are also on the loose as they try change tactics to infiltrate the most lucrative mine of sensitive and most prized data – be it either personal, business or public.
Just recently, a report said that in China, for example, Geinimi, a powerful and sophisticated mobile device virus have had been affecting hundreds of thousands of smart phones particularly Google Inc’s Android operating system. Experts said that the objective that the bug seeks to achieve is yet to be discovered – but it could be “anything from a malicious advertising network to an attempt to create a botnet," an army of computers that could be used to launch attacks on websites or obtain valuable information that could be used for identity theft.
Such idea is not farfetched: 10.9B mobile apps were uploaded in 2010 alone. As the market is going at its peak, tech gurus are expecting that the number will double for the next years. Also, as data mining continues to be profitable, such data miners will turn to smartphones for another much rewarding gain. Such will give rise to the proliferation of mobile malwares and virus: and for a start, the Geinimi is a good one.
The culprit for the propagation of the virus, according to Lookout and Symantec Corp, is that when phone users downloaded contaminated software applications from third party stores that have been repackaged to include the virus. Some of the infected programs include versions of the video games Monkey Jump 2, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010.
