Beware: A Trojan that comes via SMS
Android users have a brand new threat, called the Obad.a Trojan, to worry about which affects an unsuspecting victim and utilizes their contacts directory to spread itself to all the contacts. As Kaspersky labs have identified, the Trojan that comes to the device in form of a simple SMS asks users to reload a previously read message, once the user selects the link the Trojan gets downloaded on the device and infects the device while the user is completely unaware of it.
The Trojan once installed on the device will do the same with all the contacts on the contact list and will keep sending SMS messages to them to spread itself. Apart from these messages the new malware for Android can also spread in the form of spam or promotional messages, SMS in particular that are coming on to the devices. These messages contain the links to the malware and once the user select the link the device automatically gives permission to the Trojan to act like a device administrator, carrying out tasks and activities without any further instructions or inputs being needed form the user.
Majorly the Obad.a Trojan has hit countries including Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. But the possibility of the malware spreading globally is big.
The Trojan once it attains administrative rights on the device could perform any task on the device leading to security breach and personal data loss. So next time you receive any suspicious SMS try avoiding hitting any web links that messages contain unless you are absolutely sure as to where it is going to lead you off to.
