14 DAY TRIAL // Cybercriminals take advantage of the fact that Opera Mini is one of the most popular mobile browsers and create fake websites which store a piece of malware that looks like a genuine installation file.
Trend Micro discovered the site that resembles the official Opera page and that was specially made to be accessed from mobile devices. The content of the page is in Russian so that is the most likely origin of the hackers.
The visitor is immediately alerted that “Your version of Opera Mini browser is out of date, further work may not be correct and lead to enexpected errors and crashes! You need to urgently upgrade Opera Mini to version 6.1!”
The java file that is downloaded was detected as being J2ME_FAKEBROWS.A.
Upon execution, the virus checks if the mobile device uses specific message service centers and if a match is found, it starts sending simple text messages to a phone number encoded in the data.res file. The string “424626 357 OX” is sent to specified premium numbers using the SMS service of the machine.
Devices that support MIDlets are the ones vulnerable in front of this piece of malware.
Luckily, the malicious location was blocked by TrendMicro, which continues monitoring the activity of the newly discovered threat.
Recently, web browsers have been widely utilized as bait to attract unsuspecting internauts that might really believe their product is outdated. To make sure you don't download the wrong stuff, always make sure you acquire the application from the vendor's official online page or from trusted suppliers. Also, make sure your mobile device has some sort of security application installed.
Studies show that only a small percentage of smartphone users properly protect their apparatus because many of them still won't accept the fact that there are a lot of risks involved in operating an unprotected device.