Chinese Ad Firm Raking in $300K a Month Through Adfraud, Android Malware

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This Android exploit is here in the US too.

 

Excerpt:

 

"The same group of cybercriminals behind a strain of iOS malware uncovered last year have apparently diversified and now dabble in Android malware.

 

The group, dubbed Yingmob, has been running a malware campaign named HummingBad that controls 10 million Android devices globally and rakes in $300,000 a month, researchers said on Friday.

 

According to researchers at Check Point, who watched the group spread malware over the course of five months, the group is the side business of a legitimate Chinese advertising analytics firm, Yingmob, that runs the campaign in tandem with the company’s usual business,

 

Researchers in February found the malware, which sets up a persistent rootkit on devices for carrying out ad fraud, but weren’t entirely clear on its connection to Yingmob until it traced the campaign’s source, shortly after that research was published.

 

HummingBad shares repositories for the command and control servers with YiSpecter, a strain of iOS malware that also carried out ad fraud, discovered last year. Both types of malware link back to Yingmob, a company that claims it’s based in Beijing but apparently also operates a team for developing malware more than 250 miles across the country in Ghongqing."

 

“The malware is rooting hundreds, if not thousands, of devices daily,” Dan Wiley, Head of Incident Response at Check Point told Threatpost Tuesday, “Sometimes the malware is unsuccessful at rooting those infected devices, but not always.”

 

For more info go here: https://threatpost.com/chinese-ad-firm-raking-in-300k-a-month-through-adfraud-android-malware/119030/