Android virus and Phone virus investigation in Japan
For the first time in history, Japanese Metropolitan Police Department has been involved in a crime investigation that involved an Android virus. The MPD built the case after the release of the virus late in the previous year, following its development before making arrests early last Wednesday. Japanese officials have been quoted as saying that it is indeed the first time a Tokyo police case has involved the distribution of a porn virus.
The malware application was distributed as freeware through Google's Android platform promising video play after download. Six people were arrests last Wednesday related to the case, but according to Japanese officials, stolen data and phone numbers have been stored on international servers; and the virus is still a threat if downloaded.
Three of the six men arrested have been identified as Chitoru Manago, former executive of a Tokyo IT company and Kazunori Makita and Hiroki Koyama, executives of IT firms.
Android porn news from Japan
According to Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, which quoted the police report on multiple occasions, the application was downloaded 9,250 times since its release on December 30, and has since then fleeced some y20 million in fees from its users.
Manago, the former executive, is supposedly the 'brains' behind the operation as reports show that it was he who initially decided to steal money through an application. He began to set up a porn site to launch the virus while his partner Koyama worked on the virus.
Malware application security measure
The malware application offered users a free download to play pornographic content. However; after download, the app allegedly requested a payment of y99,800(about $1,256) in fees with this message appearing every five minutes on the screen.
"Please pay the fees as soon as possible. You need to confirm the unpaid amount. It totals 99,800 yen."
The message was reportedly displayed on the user's phone every five minutes, even after they had turned the phone off, a possibility allowed when the app utilized the stolen data. The program simply had to transmit the message directly to the user's phone rather than using its application to send the message. Many users reportedly paid the demanded amount in an attempt to remove the message from their phones.
Malware application downloaded and paid fees
Out of 9,000 people who downloaded the app, reports show that only 211 of them were actually convinced to pay the fees for the content. The total money stolen is believed to be just under y21 million, according to MPD reports.
Unfortunately, the y21 million isn't the full extent of the damage, says MPD officials; reports show that the virus was also responsible for stealing phone numbers, credit card information and email addresses which have not yet been retrieved.
Two sister sites of the porn site are also reportedly still in operation, with very similar applications available for download. Symantec researcher Joji Hamada even goes so far as to say that while he was not surprised about the arrests, he was surprised that only one of the sites was shut down, leaving the others free to continue to distribute their malicious software.
The two sites share the same source code as the original, reports Hamada, and according to the statistics he found on those sites, some 56,000 users have downloaded the software.
Writer's Bio: Article written by VikingPC – www.vikingpc.org.
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