`Gone in 60 Seconds

If you have been following us in the past few days, you might remember our report on applications from the Android Market that, once installed, would start uploading various pieces of information from the user`s handset to a remote location controlled by an attacker.

We immediately informed Google staff of these high-risk applications offered by CreativeDogs　: “Gone in 60 seconds UN”, “gi60s – reveal secrets UN”, “gi60s – reveal secrets”, “Gone in 60 seconds” and “Get secret data in 60 seconds” (detected by Bitdefender as Android.Spyware.GoneSixty.Gen). The pages have now been shut down and the apps wiped from the Android Market.

The app developer had advertised its tools as for “study purpose” only but noted that, once installed on somebody`s phone, it would send all messages, recent calls, browsing history and other information on the phone to a remote location. It would get the job done in 60 seconds and then uninstall ” quick and discrete. To access the data, the attacker could go to the developer`s site and pay $5.

Since this spyware trend will likely continue as Android gains users, we recommend you install an antivirus solution for mobile phones and pay extra attention to what applications you install and who you allow access to your device.

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