North Carolina State computer science assistant professor, Xuxian Jiang, announced that he has identified ten applications in the Android Market that were infected with malware.  Google promptly removed these applications after professor Jiang notified Google.  Professor Jiang stated that the malware exploited a Dalvik-class loading capability and ran in the background.  The malware would then secretly collect information inputted by the user in the background.

The malware was found in apps that promised to help users cheat their way through Angry Birds.  Don’t worry, Angry Birds itself is not infected.

This problem has raised some serious issues about the integrity of the Android App Store and Googles loose app approval system.  Google must take additional steps to protect the market if they expect it to grow.

Filed under: Angry Birds News

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