Cartoon Character Is No Fun On Your Phone
Do not let Judy anywhere near your Android phone or tablet.
That was a warning that emerged this week. It accompanied news that as many 36 million phones might have been infected with the latest malware to be discovered lurking in Android devices.
Judy is a cute cartoon character found in family of apps produced by a Korean company under the brand new ENIstudio. Mainly aimed at young girls, the apps focus on topics such as fashion, caring for pets and food preparation.
Cyber security specialists Check Point found that a total of 41 apps included malicious code. Each of these had been downloaded between four and 18 million times, depending on their popularity.
Once downloaded any of these apps will connect up to a remote server and it is then that dodgy code gets added. This code does not appear to do anything damaging to the phone or tablet nor does it steal any information, such as credit card details or personal information that could facilitate identity theft.
Rather it generates false clicks on advertising, thus earning money for the malware creators under false pretences. Nevertheless, the possibility remains that, having the ability to add further code to apps in a way that bypasses Google’s checks, further, more insidious changes could be made. So, anyone with a Judy app on their Android device should take the precaution of uninstalling it, even if that means upsetting a youngster. Also, other app writers might be exploiting the same loophole. So, there is an inherent warning of the need for being very selective in downloading apps, no matter how appealing they might seem.
