It is now known that hackers can secretly install malicious apps, games and pop-up ads on your smartphone remotely and take large sums of money.
Security researchers from Cheetah Mobile have uncovered one of the largest and most prolific Trojan families in the world, infecting millions of Android devices worldwide.
Dubbed Hummer, the notorious trojan stealthily installs malicious apps, games, or even porn apps on victims' phones and nets its creators more than $500,000 on a daily basis.
First discovered in 2014 by Cheetah Mobile, Hummer gained traction in early 2016, when the Trojan family at its peak was infecting approximately 1.4 million devices daily, with 63,000 infections occurring daily in China, according to researchers at Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab.
“This Trojan constantly displays pop-up ads on victims’ mobile phones, which is extremely annoying.
It also “pushes” various games and installs porn applications onto the mobile phones. Unwanted applications appear on these devices, and reappear shortly after users remove them.”
the researchers wrote in a blog.
Even as the number of infected phones decreased, Hummer still infects nearly 1 million new devices per day, making it the most widespread trojan family in the world.
Every time Hummer installs a new application on infected systems, the developers are paid 50 cents. As a result, the team behind this Trojan is believed to be making more than half a million dollars (over $500,000) every day.
…And over $15 million per month.
