Suspected Android SMS malware author arrested in France

Graham Cluley
Graham Cluley
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French police have arrested a 20-year-old man in Northern France, in connection with an attack that infected thousands of Android smartphones with money-making malware.

According to the authorities, the man worked out of his parents basement in the city of Amiens, creating fake apps that pretended to be legitimate applications. The man’s apps are said to have sent SMS text messages without the user’s approval, allowing him to earn mobile payments.

According to a BBC News report, prosecutors claim the man stole money from 17,000 victims, earning him approximately 500,000 Euros (£405,000) since 2011.

In addition, usernames and passwords were said to have been stolen by the Android malware from the users of gaming and gambling websites.

Police say that the man admitted his guilty after he was arrested, but reportedly claimed that he was not motivated by greed but by his…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Bluesky, or drop him an email.

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