14 DAY TRIAL // Mobile malware has become a problem all over the world and South Korea is no exception. Security experts from McAfee have identified a SMS Trojan that’s being distributed by cybercriminals as a version of a popular coffee shop coupon application for Android.
When victims launch the application, they’re presented with an error message which informs them that the server is overloaded and that their request cannot be processed.
In the meantime, the app, designed to target only South Korean users, creates a service that starts running in the background once the device is rebooted.
This particular service is designed to send the victim’s phone number to a remote server. After this is done, the malware, identified by McAfee as Android/Smsilence.A, monitors all incoming SMS messages and sends them back to the attacker.
The SMSs received by the victim, along with the message notifications, are blocked so that only the attacker sees them.