Microsoft researcher discovers a Botnet in Android devices

Terry Zink a Microsoft researcher has discovered a Botnet in Android devices used to send spam. Terry claims there was evidence that spam are being sent through Yahoo mail servers by Android devices. Malicious malware may have targeted Android devices to   cause this. A spammer has discovered a way to control botnet that lives in Android devices to access the user’s Yahoo mail account and send spam mails with the device without the owners knowledge.

What is a Botnet?

Botnets are simply defined as a network of infected computers controlled as a group used to send spam. Each computer is known as a “bot”. A particular virus could spread to a large number of computers and create a network and can be controlled by anyone from anywhere in the world for the purpose of sending spam mails. The owners of the computers may not even be aware their computers are used for such purposes.

This discovery by Terry explained that the emails originated from Android devices. In this case the infected Android devices serve as the bots. It’s easy to believe that these infections may have been on a large scale due to the increasing number of Android users worldwide.

How to avoid Botnet in Android devices: 

It is not clear which Android app is causing Android devices to be compromised, but it’s clear that only cracked or hacked versions of legitimate apps downloaded from different sources other than the Google Play can cause this. So it is advised that for you to stay free of malware only download your Android apps from Google Play alone. Here the chances of downloading infected apps are lower. Is it really worth putting your Android device at risk by downloading cheap apps or free apps from un-trusted sources?

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