ID: IRCNE2012041475
Date: 2012-04-21
According to "techworld", Malware writers have created fake Instagram websites to distribute Android Trojan horses, according to security researchers from antivirus firms Sophos and Trend Micro.
Originally developed for Apple's iOS devices, Instagram allows smartphone users to take photos, apply various digital filters to them and share the resulting images on social networking websites. There are over 30 million registered Instagram accounts as of April 2012, according to its creators.
At the beginning of April, an Android version of the app was released on Google Play and it was downloaded more than one million times during the first 12 hours, and now malware writers are trying to take advantage of the popularity of free photo-sharing app.
"We discovered a spoofed web page containing a rogue version of Instagram," Trend Micro fraud analyst Karla Agregado said earlier this week. "The said web page mimics Instagram‘s legitimate download page."
The fake Instagram website contains text in Russian and distributes an Android Trojan horse that, once installed, sends SMS messages to premium-rate numbers without the phone owner's authorisation, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
Last week, security researchers from Sophos reported about a similar piece of Android malware that masqueraded as the new Angry Birds Space game in order to trick users into installing it on their phones.
Trend Micro researchers have seen several fake websites during the past few days that masquerade as download pages for popular games like Fruit Ninja, Temple Run or Talking Tom Cat, Agregado said. "Users are advised to remain cautious before downloading Android apps, specially those hosted on third-party app stores."
- 4