Bad Trojan Threatens Two Thirds of All Android Devices

By Joe Casad

Ransomware forces victims to pay a “fine”

A malicious Android ransomware attack, which was first discovered in 2014, has returned with some new tactics that are succeeding in infecting Android devices around the world. According to a recent post at the Symantec site, the Android.Lockdroid.E attack affects all Android versions before Android 5 “Lollipop,” which means it threatens around 67 percent of all Android phones.

The new version of Android.Lockdroid.E offers to install a package for the user in order to obtain admin privileges for the device. Once it has admin privileges, it can do anything to the device, including locking or deleting the data or even changing the device PIN.

Most versions of the attack eventually lead to the trojan encrypting the user data and insisting that the user pay a “penalty” for accessing forbidden materials online.

02/02/2016