Businesses and employees use various mobile applications each day to help get their tasks done efficiently but there are scrupulous entities that impersonate apps which spells trouble for many businesses and their IT managed services teams in Sydney.
David Richardson, Lookout’s director of product, and his group recently did a study of the five kinds of malicious software that spoofs enterprise applications to fool people into downloading their malware. The dataset of these mobile codes show that the five mobile malware kinds often mimic enterprise apps by ripping off the names of the legitimate apps and their package names as well.
These kinds of apps you’re your IT managed services team in Sydney should be observing closely include Dropbox, ADP, Business Class Cisco Email app, Zendesk, FedEx Mobile, Horizon Client from Vmware, Mobile Learn app from Blackboard, and many others. Security issues like these can lead to business concerns that could make or break business deals and even cause an enterprise to crumble.
What is Shuanet?
IT managed services teams in Sydney should be looking out for Shuanet. It is a malware that automatically roots a mobile device and installs onto the system partition, which then downloads and installs other malicious applications. The other applications that it downloads could be benign or malicious apps that are pushed onto the mobile as part of ways to download other malicious apps.
Shuanet often also pushes intrusive and quite aggressive adverts onto the mobile device. A dependable IT managed services team in Sydney would know that a rooted mobile devices have compromised security therefore it opens the business network to a host of risks when it is connected to the business network. This could also affect software updates of other legitimate apps. Since it installs itself onto the system partition, it is quite a challenge to remove that resetting a mobile device to its factory settings can not wipe the threat.
What is AndroRAT?
Another threat that IT managed services team in Sydney should look out for is called AndroRAT, which was developed originally as a university project that creates an administration tool that can be accessed remotely.
AndroRAT lets a third party to take control of the mobile device and collects data such as call logs, contacts, device location, text messages, and it can listen in on conversations because it has access to the mobile’s microphone. This could lead to corporate and personal espionage, theft or business data, and hackers would be able to connect to business VPNs and Wi-Fi networks that the infected mobile device has previously accessed.
What is UnsafeControl
One more threat that IT managed services teams in Sydney should keep watch for is a malware that collects contacts information and sends it to the hacker’s server. UnsafeControl also has the capability to spam mobile contact lists and send spoofed SMS messages to people in the contact list so they would think that the messages came from the actual person that was hacked. If a cyber attacker used this malware to text the head of purchasing or head of finance to send a certain amount of funds to a certain bank/bitcoin/PayPal account then it could lead to serious business losses.
What is PJApps
This malware that IT managed services teams in Sydney should be keeping a close watch for leaks the hacked phone number, IMEI (mobile device unique identifier), and device location. It usually used to send messages to premium numbers that are of course not free, and it can also download other applications onto the infected mobile device. This could lead to a huge surprise business phone bill, corporate espionage since the attacker would know the location of the person carrying the business mobile device, and theft of valuable data in the device which could throw a wrench onto ongoing business plans and deals.
What is Ooqqxx?
This malware that plagues IT managed services teams in Sydney downloads itself so that the device connects to an advertising network which pushes plenty of irritating adverts onto the notification bar, puts shortcuts onto the home screen, creates pop-up ads, and covertly downloads large files. Many businesses have been experiencing flooding of helpdesk tickets from employees whose devices get infected, which in turn uses up plenty of time and resources of the IT managed services team of the Sydney enterprise.
