Spyware App on Google Play Gets Boot, Returns Days Later

[silversurfer]

A music-streaming app offered on Google Play, harboring spyware that stole victims’ contacts, files and SMS messages, made its way onto the official Android app marketplace not once, but twice.
 
The spyware was hidden in an app called Radio Balouch (also known as RB Music). The app itself was actually a fully-functional streaming radio app for music enthusiasts interested in listening to music from the Balouchi region – an area in eastern Iran, western Pakistan and southern Afghanistan. But behind the scenes, the app was stealing its users’ personal data.
 
“Besides Google Play, the malware, detected by ESET as Android/Spy.Agent.AOX, has been available on alternative app stores,” said Lukas Stefanko, security researcher with ESET in a Thursday post. “Additionally, it has been promoted on a dedicated website, via Instagram, and YouTube. We have reported the malicious nature of the campaign to the respective service providers, but received no response.”

Read more here: https://threatpost.com/spyware-app-on-go...er/147618/