Charger Ransomware Creeps in through EnergyRescue

According to security researchers, a ransomware strain in the guise of a battery application infiltrated Google's Play. Examine Level states that a prospect of the company became infected with the malicious application named "Charger" when they unwittingly plugged the battery monitoring gadget which is named EnergyRescue.

No sooner is the command issued the malicious software finds the location, opens all the contacts' ids from the address book and sends them SMS messages before blocking access to the system. Thereafter, the victim is said he must make certain payment for reversing the ransomware otherwise all his details would be used to carry out many nefarious activities, including spamming of messages and financial fraud. Tech2.org posted this, January 26, 2017.

A message accompanying the ransomware notifies the victim that he'll be willing to pay when he knows that part of his personal information will be posted on the gray areas of the Web every 30 minutes.

The Charger controllers further give a reassuring message to the victims via issuing a cent percent assurance that when the victims pay the ransom amount of 0.2 Bitcoin the entire seized info would be abandoned while access to their computers returned.

According to Andrey Polkovnichenko and Oren Koriat, cellular safety examiners at Examine Level, the 0.2 Bitcoin ransom demanded is much greater than what Cellular ransomware hitherto demanded just as DataLust ransomware too comparatively demanded only $15.

Furthermore as per Examine Level, thus far there hasn't been any ransom payment made vis-à-vis the Bitcoin negotiation. Therefore, nothing can be said clearly whether any profit was made from the related ransomware attack. The cellular safety analysts state they've apprised Google about the incident while effectively deactivated the tainted Charger application.

A Google spokesperson said they respected the initiative made to spread wariness of the happening situation. The Internet giant had adopted suitable measures while was ready to carefully work out with analysts to protect Android customers.

Ultimately, it isn't quite clear how the Charger app made its way into Google Play. Earlier, Android malware developers cleverly bypassed Google's security checks via hiding in professional applications such as various utilities or video games.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/30/2017