Android has as far as today been declared as one of the safest Operating Systems given Google’s security mechanisms. Well, the day is here, the first breach of security has happened. Android is not safe anymore, cause the first true Android virus is finally here. It is being reported that the malware named Dvmap has now perfected the art of code injection, using which a massive attack on android throughout the world could be carried out.
The world famous anti virus company Kaspersky has a team working on the safety and security of android devices and their labs have analyzed their observations and used it to explain how this malicious malware can spread, fooling Google Play Store’s quite unbreachable security wall. A Trojan Horse has been distributed in Google’s systems which was being monitored by Kapersky since start of 2017. The company noticed that malware Dvmap could easily swap clean code with malicious code and befool Google’s protection and verification mechanisms. Thus the Bouncerd which were introduce in 2012 can not keep Pay Store safe from malware any longer as these can be tricked sans any difficulty.
Trojan.AndroidOS.Dvmap.a, the malware which is about to steal away our comfort of secure Android is, according to experts, an especially tricky form of Trojan horse only. Thus software, along with attempts at root privileges in four different ways (using even 64-bit compatible code), also infects the system with malicious code called libraries libdmv.so and libandroid_runtime.so.
This is followed by the Trojan triggering protection mechanisms to verify and install third-party apps which is done by an administrator service called com.qualcmm.timeservices, which eerily looks similar to a legitimate background service like com.qualcomm.timeservices which leads to the system getting compromised.
The ability of installing third-party apps on infected devices at any given point in time, gives the writer of the malware an upper hand who can sell this ability to anyone when the time is right. By far, only about 50,000 devices are reported to be affected of this, but given the fact that this malware can easily escape detection by Google, it is very possible that many more devices be affected.
Usually, Google can delete potentially harmful apps from an android device, but this specific malware being able to manipulate system libraries can stop the deletion from happening (or report of it to the original writer of the code). This can thus lead to a revised installation of the malware under a different name and escaping detection by Google’s protection mechanism. Therefore if a system is infected by the malware, the security is easily compromised.
The one and only way to remedy the affected device is formatting the system partition and re-installing the original firmware, which requires usually the help and expertise of a service centre executive in case of most consumers who would not be able to do it themselves.
The only way to prevent infection, and to keep your android device secure from this first true Android virus is usually to have the most recent security patches issued by different manufacturers as per the need of your device. However, only small number of users can generally access these security patches, making most of us open to the risk of malware attack. Mostly security patches are delivered with considerable delay or not at all by the manufacturers, since providing patches on a vast scale can be highly expensive and the customer base risks of being narrowed as most people would not go for new phones if their older ones are working alright with new updates.
Amidst all this, VPN is another method to ensure the security of your android device. With internet threats by large, VPN lets you access the net without being tracked and/or noticed. It lets you even browse the censored content on the internet safely, making sure that no harmful malware comes to your device. Thus a mix of updating systems regularly and using VPN can keep the threat of this virus at bay, making your android device secure. You can get started with the VPN that we personally use and trust and we also do recommend to our users. Click Here To Get Started
