Just how much of a threat are mobile botnets such as Viking Horde, given the relative resource limitations of smartphones?
Check Point reports that Android devices infected by the Viking Horde malware are immediately recruited into an advert clicking simulation scam to generate illicit revenue. Researchers also found that Viking Horde could do the usual mobile malware thing of sending premium-rate texts, capable of generating £4.50 per message. Controlled by ‘many C&C servers’ and originating in the Ukraine, Viking Horde is just the latest in a run of evolving mobile botnet creating threats. “While botnets haven’t become quite as prevalent a threat to mobile devices as they are to traditional computers,” Corey Nachreiner, chief technology officer at WatchGuard Technologies told SCMagazineUK.com, “they’re certainly an increasing concern and one that most security experts predict will continue to grow.”
