Celebrity photo thieves also targeted Android users with Flappy Bird clone – report

Now it can be told: While several celebrities recently had their private photos leaked after their iCloud accounts were compromised, users of devices running Google's Android could have been targeted too.

UK's The Guardian reported the hackers who stole celebrity photos off iCloud planned to use a malicious clone of the popular "Flappy Bird" game to infect Android devices.

The report said the Android app would request access to the user's photos on installation, counting on the user's "carelessness" about the permissions granted to Android apps.

However, Google has since spotted and blocked the malicious app.

It cited a post on a hackers' forum by a supposed developer who claimed he had developed a copy of "Flappy Bird" to exploit app permissions.

The developer even referred to himself as a "f***ing genious (sic)" who modded the app to secretly download the infected phones photos to his server when the game is running.”

But the developer said it was a violation of Google Play developers' license to publish such sneaky apps, and he would not risk his license.

The Guardian report said the hackers ring may have been into stealing and trading photos.

The Guardian quoted Trend Micro vice president of security research Rik Ferguson as saying such a plan was entirely plausible.

“We frequently see manifestations of malware on Google Play Store and it’s certainly not malware-free,” he said.

He said that while Google checks Google Play for malware, "it tends to be post-release." — Joel Locsin/JDS, GMA News