According to Avast, thousands of Android smartphones are being shipped with adware pre-installed, including the devices from manufacturers like ZTE and Archos. Interestingly, the majority of these devices are not certified by Google. The malware is named 'Cosiloon' creates an overlay to present an ad over a webpage within the users’ browser. Avast claims that the adware has been active for at least three years, and is difficult to remove as it is installed on the firmware level and uses strong obfuscation. Whats scarier is that thousands of users are affected, and in the past one month the latest version of the adware is found in around 18,000 devices located in more than 100 countries including Russia, Italy, Germany, the UK, as well as in the U.S. The company says that it is in touch with Google who is aware of the issue and is also taking steps to mitigate the malicious capabilities. Google is working on fixing the malware's app variants on Android smartphones using internally developed techniques. Though there is Google Play Protect, the malware comes pre-installed which makes is harder to address. Google is reaching out to firmware developers to bring awareness to these concerns and encourage in taking steps accordingly. It is also unclear how ...
Saturday 26 May 2018
Android smartphones being shipped with pre-installed ‘Cosiloon’ malware: Report
According to Avast, thousands of Android smartphones are being shipped with adware pre-installed, including the devices from manufacturers like ZTE and Archos. Interestingly, the majority of these devices are not certified by Google. The malware is named 'Cosiloon' creates an overlay to present an ad over a webpage within the users’ browser. Avast claims that the adware has been active for at least three years, and is difficult to remove as it is installed on the firmware level and uses strong obfuscation. Whats scarier is that thousands of users are affected, and in the past one month the latest version of the adware is found in around 18,000 devices located in more than 100 countries including Russia, Italy, Germany, the UK, as well as in the U.S. The company says that it is in touch with Google who is aware of the issue and is also taking steps to mitigate the malicious capabilities. Google is working on fixing the malware's app variants on Android smartphones using internally developed techniques. Though there is Google Play Protect, the malware comes pre-installed which makes is harder to address. Google is reaching out to firmware developers to bring awareness to these concerns and encourage in taking steps accordingly. It is also unclear how ...
