Russian Android malware can spread through text messages

A piece of malware targeting Russian-speaking Android users abuses a person’s contact list to try and infect other devices, according to security vendor Eset. The malware, call “Android/Samsapo.A” can download other malicious files to a phone, steal personal information from a device such as text messages and block phone calls,wrote Robert Lipovsky, an Eset malware researcher. The malware uploads data to a domain that was registered about a week ago. Samsapo spreads by sending text messages from an infected device to other people in the victim’s contact list, a worm-like characteristic that has been used by other mobile malware programs. The text message says “Is this your photo?” in Russian and has a link to an Android application package (.APK) file containing a copy of Samsapo.