Rogue Instagram, Angry Birds Space apps threaten Android users

With the immense popularity of the photo-sharing app Instagram and the game Angry Birds Space, it was just a matter of time before cybercriminals sought to exploit them.

 

Rogue Instagram and Angry Birds Space apps are now in the wild and is targeting users of Google's Android platform, a computer security firm said Wednesday (Manila time).

 

"Cybercriminals, soon enough, started to take advantage of Instagram‘s popularity. We discovered a spoofed webpage containing a rogue version of Instagram. The said webpage mimics Instagram‘s legitimate download page. The red squares indicate clickable links that lead to the download," Trend Micro said in a blog post.

 

Similarly, it said a rogue version of Angry Birds Space was uncovered, hosted on a Russian site.

 

Trend Micro noted Instagram gained attention when social networking giant Facebook acquired it for $1 billion.

 

Shortly before that, Instagram had released a version of the app for Android.

 

"Both the rogue Instagram and Angry Birds Space are detected as ANDROIDOS_SMSBOXER.A. Based on our initial analysis, the malware will ask users to permit the sending of a query using short numbers to supposedly activate the app. In reality, this malware sends a message to specific numbers," Trend Micro said.

 

It added the rogue app also connects to specific sites, to possibly download other files onto the device.

 

Rogue Russian pages

 

Trend Micro said it had seen several other Russian domains hosting fake webpages posing as download pages for some popular Android apps in the last few days.

 

"Some of the apps used in this scheme include Fruit Ninja, Temple Run and Talking Tom Cat," it said.

 

It advised users to remain cautious before downloading Android apps, specially those hosted on third-party app stores. — TJD, GMA News