Symantec Circles Out Android.Arspam Trojan

Looking at the recent trends, it seems like malware and hacktivism are only on the rise. Symantec's research has led to the discovery of a new Trojan, Android.Arspam. This Trojan was distributed through forums highlighting the Middle Eastern issues and used Android Operating system as a carrier.

It's not a surprising fact that this Trojan is associated with the Middle East market. A lot of cybercrime and hacktivism has been seen on that front. With the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_Spring" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Arab Spring</a> emerging in the Middle East owing to the recent protests and demonstrations, there has been a high dependency on social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness. The Middle East is also known to be a hub of electronics devices with an increasingly connected and mobile online community. This makes the region easily vulnerable to exploitation.

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The Android.Arspam Trojan made its way into Android-based devices through a fake copy of a popular Islamic compass app available on the Android Market. Though the real version of the app is still safe. So, when a user installs the fake app, the Arspam code which is embedded in the fake copy activates itself working in the background as a service called alArabiyyah. The Trojan then randomly picks one link from a list of eighteen and then sends an SMS message to every contact in the address book of the hacked device, sending them a link to a forum site. According to Symantec, every link to a forum site points to identical content, which seems to be a tribute to Mohamed Bouaziz.

These kinds of Trojan are one of the many ways to promote hacktivism. "<em>It is of crucial importance that individuals and organisations secure themselves across all devices as these ‘gateway' threats become more sophisticated and potentially harmful,"</em> said  Teksoz, chief security strategist, Emerging Markets, Symantec.

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