BBC investigation highlights smartphone malware issues

The BBC has put together a report showing how easy it is to create a piece of malware to infect a smartphone with.

Mark Ward, a technology reporter, managed to create a piece of malware hidden by the front of a game of noughts and crosses.

The app went through the smartphone owner’s data, pilfering contact details and text messages, and also logged the location of the handset. It then sent this information on to an email account.

Mr Ward created the spying app using standard parts from software development tookits. The apparent ease with which it was stitched together highlights security issues on smartphones.

The BBC’s app employed legitimate functions for its information stealing routines, so would be more difficult for app store owners to spot as something dodgy. Games might use these exact same procedures to post high scores to friends on Facebook, for example, quite legitimately.

So far the amount of malware loaded apps appearing on smartphones is low, but the situation won’t stay that way for long.

Nigel Stanley, a Security Analyst at Bloor Research, told the BBC there were signs to watch out for regarding malware infection on a handset.

He commented: “A very obvious tell-tale sign on the phone is all of a sudden your battery life is deteriorating. You wake up one morning and your battery has been drained then that might indicate that some of the data has been taken off your phone overnight.”

You should obviously keep a close eye on your mobile bill, too, for nastiness such as unauthorised calls to premium rate numbers, a common tactic of smartphone cyber-scammers.