Supporters of Saudi Women Driving Campaign Targeted with Android Malware

The October 26 Women Driving Campaign in Saudi Arabia was met with a lot of criticism. Even hackers have targeted the campaign’s official website on several occasions. 

Security researcher Irfan Asrar has also identified a malicious Android app that targets the supporters of the women driving campaign.

According to the expert, the app appears to be dedicated to those who support the initiative. However, after it’s installed, it hijacks the devices on which it’s installed.

The threat is activated when the victim plugs in a headset. At that point, the “No woman, no drive” song starts playing, making it impossible to make a phone call or listen to anything else.

Also, a protest message against the campaign is displayed on the screen. The text is similar to the one posted by hackers on the oct26driving.org website.

Asrar warns that the Android malware might be a work in progress since it has some other functionalities that it doesn’t use yet. The threat is capable of harvesting data from the infected device’s address book.