Millions of Android smartphones in the budget segment were infected with malware even before they hit stores. This was announced by Trend Micro information security company experts at the Black Hat Asia conference, the portal reported. Anti-Malware.
According to experts, such situations, which are occurring more and more often, are due to outsourcing, as any participant in the production chain can inject malicious code into devices.
“What’s the easiest way to infect millions of mobile devices? Do it at the factory. It can be likened to a tree sucking fluid: If you bring an infection to the root, it will spread everywhere, including every branch and every leaf,” Trend Micro Senior Threat Researcher Fedor Yarochkin commented on the situation.
According to Yarochkin, mass preloading of viruses began after the fall in smartphone prices. “The level of competition among firmware developers has reached such a level that they can no longer charge so much for their products. But of course nothing is free. As a result, the developers began to offer the so-called “silent” plugins,” explained the expert.
These malicious plugins steal device user data, which is then used in various scam schemes, allowing firmware developers to earn extra money. According to Trend Micro, dangerous plug-ins have been found on the smartphones of at least ten vendors. Experts recommend not to choose the cheapest models of smartphones and trust only reliable manufacturers, so as not to become a victim of cybercriminals.
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