The GriftHorse trojan has infected over 10 million Android smartphones and silently activates expensive subscriptions

Security researchers issued a warning regarding a cunning piece of malware for Google's mobile operating system Android, which is the world's most popular OS and runs on a multitude of devices, like the current flagship Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G (from US$1,199 on Amazon). Because of the high number of Android smartphones that are in use, the trojan has already managed to infect more than ten million devices in 70 countries worldwide.

According to an article by the German website heise, the sneaky malware made its way into the Google Play Store by hiding in the code of 200 legitimate looking Android apps. After the installation of the app, the trojan employed a cunning approach in order to steal money from countless Android users. In simple words, GriftHorse activated expensive mobile subscriptions via text message without the user's consent. For all this to happen, careless users had to fall into multiple traps.

After downloading and installing of one of the affected applications, users were confronted with fake winning notifications, which consequently lead them to a website on which they were prompted to enter their phone number. From there on, GriftHorse supposedly activated the aforementioned expensive subscriptions via text message. Google has since deleted all infected apps from the Play Store, but some applications remain available for download on several websites that host Android APKs. Android users should therefore remain vigilant, especially since most anti virus applications cannot yet detect and combat the GriftHorse trojan for Android.