14 DAY TRIAL // The BBC reports that a 20-year-old individual has been arrested in France on suspicion of developing and spreading an SMS Trojan designed to infect Android devices.
By masking his malicious creation as legitimate apps, the cybercriminal has been able to infect the devices of 17,000 individuals, causing total losses of around 500,000 EUR ($652,000).
The malware was programmed to seamlessly send SMS messages to premium rate numbers and steal login credentials for gambling and gaming websites on which the victims owned accounts.
Apparently, the suspect told authorities that he didn’t do it for the money, but because he loved computer technology.
I believed Kevin Mitnick when he said he hacked into computer systems driven by a thirst for knowledge, but what does love for technology have to do with making 500,000 EUR off the backs of innocent users?