The Verge – Russell Brandom – 16.02.16
A new virus is hitting Android phones in Europe, uncovered by Heimdal Security. Called Mazar, the virus spreads through texts and, once installed, forwards all web traffic through a malicious proxy, allowing attackers to harvest sensitive details from the user’s web activity.
This scenario goes to illustrate why business’s should be looking to expand their view of internet security and data risk management beyond that of their traditional network, servers, PC’s and laptops. Allowing users Android devices access to your network data over wifi represents an increasing risk to your business data as mobile devices are typically less well managed and therefore potential more vulnerable to the increasing sophistication of malware attacks. Android is the new wild west for criminal fraternity because mobile users are typically much less aware of the risks they are taking when using their mobile device. Convenience is so important and the mobile addiction so great that users simply oblivious to any risks.
In the case reported, users will have been unaware that their device was sending their data through a malicious location making it easy for the malware to persist undetected for many months, if not years.
The message is therefore to think about data security in it’s entirety and not to overlook mobiles just because they’re small.
