Smartphones are computers that are now owned by billions of people on earth. But not everyone can afford to buy a device from a more reputable manufacturer with the best security system. At the Black Hat event held in Singapore, researchers issued reports that millions of Android smartphones and Android TVs were detected as having malicious applications installed.
According to a Trend Micro report, up to 8.9 million smartphones manufactured by 50 lesser-known manufacturers have Guerrilla malware installed in 15 different applications. Guerilla opens a backdoor on the device that allows users' personal data to be stolen.
It was then sold by the hacker group Lemon Group for advertising purposes. Advertising applications are then installed on the phone which causes the device battery to drain quickly. Devices with this malware are sold in the U.S., Mexico, Indonesia, Thailand, and Russia.
Next in a report by TechCrunch, a malicious application was found on an Android Box that was sold to the public. This app operates in the background and automatically pushes ads without it being detected to generate illegal income. Android Boxes detected with this malware are AllWinner T95Max, RockChip X12 Plus, and RockChip X88 Pro 10.
This is the reason why the sale of non-certified Android TV is banned in Malaysia. Issues like this happen because there are certain groups who are cunning to generate income by making users their victims.
