Comments on: Symantec: Android Market having its largest malware infection ever http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/ Feeding Your Gadget and Tech Obsessions Mon, 15 Oct 2012 17:38:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Noway http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-177661 Noway Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-177661 Symantec banter about Android malware seems another case of the pot calling the kettle black. They are well recognized in the pc market for preying on people’s fears by having a trial version of the security software pre-installed on computers, which constantly flags false positives… thus convincing the uninformed masses that they need to upgrade to the “for purchase” version. This Android “malware” is nothing more than agressive advertising, which is already required by Android to be disclosed at time of intall. Now, if only people would read the disclosure and permissions information presented to them! Fear mongering articles such as this do not serve the public good. Educating people as to safe computing would be much preferable to this sensationalistic journalism.

]]> By: Noway http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-177662 Noway Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-177662 Symantec banter about Android malware seems another case of the pot calling the kettle black. They are well recognized in the pc market for preying on people’s fears by having a trial version of the security software pre-installed on computers, which constantly flags false positives… thus convincing the uninformed masses that they need to upgrade to the “for purchase” version. This Android “malware” is nothing more than agressive advertising, which is already required by Android to be disclosed at time of intall. Now, if only people would read the disclosure and permissions information presented to them! Fear mongering articles such as this do not serve the public good. Educating people as to safe computing would be much preferable to this sensationalistic journalism.

]]> By: Noway http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-177663 Noway Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:50:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-177663 Symantec banter about Android malware seems another case of the pot calling the kettle black. They are well recognized in the pc market for preying on people’s fears by having a trial version of the security software pre-installed on computers, which constantly flags false positives… thus convincing the uninformed masses that they need to upgrade to the “for purchase” version. This Android “malware” is nothing more than agressive advertising, which is already required by Android to be disclosed at time of intall. Now, if only people would read the disclosure and permissions information presented to them! Fear mongering articles such as this do not serve the public good. Educating people as to safe computing would be much preferable to this sensationalistic journalism.

]]> By: zeal_assassin http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176956 zeal_assassin Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:53:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176956 Symantec should be worried about its own self for now after being hacked.

]]> By: zeal_assassin http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176957 zeal_assassin Sun, 29 Jan 2012 07:53:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176957 Symantec should be worried about its own self for now after being hacked.

]]> By: 1lann http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176859 1lann Sat, 28 Jan 2012 22:02:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176859 Ohhh no. I just checked the flashlight app as I mentioned before and if you look at the permissions, they are very suspicious. It requires:
Your location
Read phone state and identity
System tools – install/remove shortcuts
View Wifi state and network state
Take pictures and video from camera
Full network access
Modify and delete SD card contents

In fact all of it is suspicious. The only thing not suspicious is:
Prevent tablet from sleeping
and
Control Flashlight.

It’s called Brightest Flashlight Free by Goldenshores Technologies llc and sadly enough, its in the top 100 android apps with 10,000,000+ downloads.

]]> By: 1lann http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176855 1lann Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:41:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176855 Frick… I got that 3 days ago when I was downloading a flashlight app thing (Which was quite useless in the end anyway so I uninstalled it immediately) but I had that search button on my screen. My current antivirus (Dr. Web) didn’t detect anything after I did a full scan. So I decided to open and it was indeed a legit search engine but filled some ads. I removed the the icon and tried to find it in my applications list but couldn’t. So immediately downloaded AVG and Norton (The free version) And they didn’t detect anything. So I just carried on thinking it was nothing. But I was wrong… However, luckily it infected my Asus Transformer Prime so all the data it could have gotten was my MAC Address as there is no sim card slot. Ironically I did a factory reset 2 days before the incident :(

]]> By: Steve Yelvington http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176819 Steve Yelvington Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:54:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176819 More lazy copy/paste churnalism. It’s a nosy ad network, not a trojan. Symantec is scareware. Shame on Slashgear and shame on Chris Burns.

]]> By: Counsel Dew http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176793 Counsel Dew Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:38:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176793 This is the same company that was reported as :

The world’s biggest maker of security software had previously said that hackers stole the code from a third party, but corrected that statement on Tuesday after an investigation found that Symantec’s own networks had been infiltrated.

That company? One making a statement that appears, to me, to … mislead people? …

]]> By: Ben Puna http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176771 Ben Puna Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:53:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176771 weren’t Symantec in the news recently as a target of annonymous?!  I guess they are just trying to divert attention of the fact that they have issue of their own..

]]> By: Ben Puna http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176772 Ben Puna Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:53:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176772 weren’t Symantec in the news recently as a target of annonymous?!  I guess they are just trying to divert attention of the fact that they have issue of their own..

]]> By: Ben Puna http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176773 Ben Puna Sat, 28 Jan 2012 10:53:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176773 weren’t Symantec in the news recently as a target of annonymous?!  I guess they are just trying to divert attention of the fact that they have issue of their own..

]]> By: Johannes Lørup http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176756 Johannes Lørup Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:55:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176756 Look at those names. Noone with half a brain would install any of them.

]]> By: Johannes Lørup http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176757 Johannes Lørup Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:55:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176757 Look at those names. Noone with half a brain would install any of them.

]]> By: Johannes Lørup http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176758 Johannes Lørup Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:55:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176758 Look at those names. Noone with half a brain would install any of them.

]]> By: Matti http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176730 Matti Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:20:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176730 As much as I despise companies like Symantec (I believe these guys are responsible for most of the viruses and malware out there), this doesn’t help Android’s image one bit. Would be a different story if the infected users downloaded an APK and installed em, but this is from the actual Android Market (if the story is true, that is)

Either way, it shows Google seriously need to apply some form of vetting in the marketplace. Perhaps not Apple levels of tyranny, but at least some sort of tier system; First party and highly polished apps (code and theme wise) could be tier1, less polished and iffy apps in tier2, the remaining dubious crap (the majority) in tier3.

This is part of the reason why seasoned Linux users think that Android is giving Linux a bad name. Android only uses the kernel and some other backends, but totally forgoes most of the security features that come with Linux distributions.  With all these infections, Android seems to have more in common with Windows than it does with Linux.

]]> By: Matti http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176731 Matti Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:20:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176731 As much as I despise companies like Symantec (I believe these guys are responsible for most of the viruses and malware out there), this doesn’t help Android’s image one bit. Would be a different story if the infected users downloaded an APK and installed em, but this is from the actual Android Market (if the story is true, that is)

Either way, it shows Google seriously need to apply some form of vetting in the marketplace. Perhaps not Apple levels of tyranny, but at least some sort of tier system; First party and highly polished apps (code and theme wise) could be tier1, less polished and iffy apps in tier2, the remaining dubious crap (the majority) in tier3.

This is part of the reason why seasoned Linux users think that Android is giving Linux a bad name. Android only uses the kernel and some other backends, but totally forgoes most of the security features that come with Linux distributions.  With all these infections, Android seems to have more in common with Windows than it does with Linux.

]]> By: Matti http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176732 Matti Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:20:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176732 As much as I despise companies like Symantec (I believe these guys are responsible for most of the viruses and malware out there), this doesn’t help Android’s image one bit. Would be a different story if the infected users downloaded an APK and installed em, but this is from the actual Android Market (if the story is true, that is)

Either way, it shows Google seriously need to apply some form of vetting in the marketplace. Perhaps not Apple levels of tyranny, but at least some sort of tier system; First party and highly polished apps (code and theme wise) could be tier1, less polished and iffy apps in tier2, the remaining dubious crap (the majority) in tier3.

This is part of the reason why seasoned Linux users think that Android is giving Linux a bad name. Android only uses the kernel and some other backends, but totally forgoes most of the security features that come with Linux distributions.  With all these infections, Android seems to have more in common with Windows than it does with Linux.

]]> By: Paulus Net http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176679 Paulus Net Sat, 28 Jan 2012 04:12:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176679 Deleted, found the information in the displayed picture – sorry.

]]> By: tastygroove http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176643 tastygroove Sat, 28 Jan 2012 00:19:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176643 Holy crap that balloon thing might be on my boys’ phones.

There are a few balloon ones on there… The youngest, 2, killed the phone he got for Xmas (used optimus) with a balloon blowing game.. blow into the mic, blow up the balloon until it pops. He blew slobber into the charge port. When I got it apart it was all the way up into the other end of the phone.

]]> By: Jr McAtee http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176632 Jr McAtee Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:27:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176632 I think the same thing about Symantec.

]]> By: Gandalthewhite http://www.slashgear.com/symantec-android-market-having-its-largest-malware-infection-ever-27211082/#comment-176623 Gandalthewhite Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:47:00 +0000 http://www.slashgear.com/?p=211082#comment-176623 That is a weird picture of a droid incredible in….I think an otterbox? Looks similar to mine.

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