Android botnets now controlled by spammers

Android malware is rapidly evolving, and with a million handsets being sold every day, most with very little protection against malicious applications, malware writers are having a field day exploiting the platform.

The latest malware to be detected is an Android botnet being used to send spam emails via Yahoo accounts.

Terry Zink on MSDN blogs discovered the infection, and suggests it is likely due to downloading infected applications from 3rd party app stores, a particular affliction of Android that separates it from iOS and Windows Phone, and that infected devices appear to be mainly in the Middle East, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Of course knowing all this does not help all of those likely millions of owners of Android handsets with malware sucking their battery, running up their data charges and likely stealing email addresses from their contacts list.

All we can suggest is that they buy a Windows Phone…

Via The Verge.com