While hearing about Android malware is nothing new, the researchers at CA Community have found an Android malware which can record your phone calls. Holy security risk, Batman!
What’s scary is that the permissions needed for this “app” look like your standard permissions for many other apps including hardware controls, phone calls and system tools. You eagle eyed security people may see this and it will raise red flags but average people would likely just click install. This Android malware has the ability to record all of your calls in the “amr” format.
The company never said that this Android malware is actually in the Android Market or that it has hit any real users, so don’t freak out too much yet. It does show the potential for bad guys to get at your information but I won’t start freaking out until we see this kind of stuff land in the Android Market. No matter what you think Google should or shouldn’t be doing to police the Android Market, CA Community had some good advice for Android users:
As it is already widely acknowledged that this year is the year of mobile malware, we advice the smartphone users to be more logical and exercise the basic security principles while surfing and installing any applications.