Porn app hides Trojan to target Android smartphones warns F-Secure

New malware targeting Android smartphones and mobile devices has been uncovered by F Secure.

The Trojan, which the security company has christened with the catchy name Trojan:Android/FakeRegSMS.B hides a PNG file that allows it to hijack a person's phone and send premium rate text messages.

It also does its best to bypass phone anti-virus products and the Android app store security measures.

F-Secure security advisor Sean Sullivan commented that:"This is the first example of this our analysts have seen," adding that that the purpose of the malware was try to avoid Android app store security measures, and phone antivirus products.

Sullivan said that based on the blurred image that the company has seen it is "undoubtedly advertising itself as some kind of free porn video player; a popular bait."

The app tries to trick people into signing up for a subscription based service and consumer can protect themselves by avoiding the free porn video player market .

"You can find the same kind of services on the web, pushing various banner ads. In a perfect world, users click on the banners and read the fine print/terms.

"This mobile malware is driven by some kind of affiliate that is driving "sales" via app fraud rather than banners," he added.

Sullivan went on to say that mobile security software will block this type of software, but if a person's phone is infected the malware should be simple to uninstall.

F Secure has alerted various computer security response teams (CERTs) about the new malware and it should be passing this information on to Android Market