What makes this thing so special is the fact that a server can dictate what the Trojan does, meaning it’s quite sophisticated. The Trojan is in repackaged Android apps that look like legitimate ones. These apps have made their way onto a few Chinese third-party app stores. The Trojan is called Gemini and (here is what you really wanted to know), it can seriously compromise personal data on Android devices. More specifically, when an application which contains it runs on the phone, the Trojan runs in the background and collects information. This information can include location coordinates, device identifiers and it can download and tell the user to install an app or prompt him to install it. It can also send a list of installed apps to a server. According to security company Lookout, this is the most complex Android malware they have seen yet. So for the time being, steer clear of third party app stores and as always, never install apps from unknown sources that you don’t trust. Personally I’m weary when just downloading from the Android Market, if an app requests too much access to my phone I simply won’t install it. 2011 will be the year the phones took over the planet! :) Comment Name * Email *
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