Virus Alert! - Highly Dangerous Trojan Found in Apps on the Google Play Store

Tens of thousands of Android users are thought to have fallen victim to a newly-discovered malware, which enlists devices as part of a hacker-controlled botnet.

Researchers at security firm Check Point, who discovered the malware, said in a blog post Monday that the malware is "persistent," and is "difficult or even impossible to remove manually."

The malware is dubbed "Viking Horde," after one of the popular apps it poses as. The sophisticated malware campaign consists of a number of games and apps that are readily available through Google Play, the app store for Android devices. 

At least five instances of the app have so far been able to evade Google Play's malware scans for almost a month, since it was first submitted to the app store.

When the user installs the app, it will automatically join a botnet -- a network of devices controlled by an attacker -- which disguise ad clicks to generate money. 

The app also has full access to parts of the devices it infects, potentially leading to theft of personal data.

Some user reviews claim the app also sends premium text messages, which can be used to make money but also conduct distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks against users through persistent message sending.

Most Android phones aren't rooted, which allow the owner to deeply customize the device by opening up access to parts of the operating system that are usually locked down. But if the Android phone is rooted, the malware will download additional components that makes the malware almost impossible to remove.

But the researchers warn that the malware can be used for far more nefarious purposes, such as remote code execution, which allows an attacker to compromise the data on the device.

So far, the malware-ridden apps have been downloaded tens of thousands of times -- likely more. According to the researchers, one of the apps made it as a top free app in the Google Play store. At the time of writing, the apps are still in the Google Play store -- albeit with a considerable 1-star rating from the user reviewing community.

Sources :  

• Softpedia
• CheckPoint

How to Remove Shortcut Virus From USB and Memory Card?

Now a day’s Pen drives and Memory cards are the most used devices to transfer data such as movies , songs , documents etc but often storage devices are infected by shortcut virus. If you connect your infected Pen drive to your system it will show files and folders having shortcuts. And in case you open the shortcut fie or folder it would infect your whole system badly.

So here is a method to remove all shortcut-virus and recover the files.

NOTE: Do not open the shortcut file or folder otherwise the virus could infect your system.

• Step 1: Connect your Pen drive or memory card.
• Step 2: Open command prompt. (Windows Button + R -->type cmd-->Press Enter)
• Step 3: Go to My computer and check out your Pen drive letter.
• Step 4:Back to Command-prompt and type "attrib -h -r -s /s /d j:\*.*" (Without quotes "). Don’t forget to replace the "j" with your Pen drive or memory card letter. Press Enter
• Step 5: Go back to your Pen drive or memory card. You would see both your original files and shortcut files.Delete all the shortcut and unknown files and copy your original files and folders to another drive.

Its recommended to format the Pen drive or Memory card. You have successfully remove shortcut virus from pendrive and recovered the infected files.

Follow:

• Keep your system up to date with the latest antivirus.
• Update your antivirus program at regular interval of time.
• Do not ever open the shortcut or virus file with the extension filename.lnk . it could badly harm your computer and could infect your other removable devices too.
• Before opening any removable drive ( pen drive or SD card ) perform a deep scan of the removable drive