Songs, an app probably used by a few million Indian Android users, was among the two apps recently caught covertly using smartphones for mining bitcoins and dogecoins.
Security researchers at Trend Micro, a company that makes antivirus and other security applications, recently wrote in a blog that 'Songs' and 'Prized - Real Rewards & Prizes' were using smartphones to covertly mine for virtual currency.
Mining virtual currency like bitcoin or dogecoin requires lots of computing power. If an app uses a smartphone to mine virtual currency, the process is likely to keep the processor running at 100%, resulting in poor battery life and heating of the device.
Trend Micro said the apps being used for bitcoin and dogecoin mining were injected with ANDROIDOS_KAGECOIN, a malware.
"(Some) coin mining apps were found outside of the Google Play Store, but we have found the same behaviour in apps (Songs and Prized) inside the Google Play Store. These apps have been downloaded by millions of users, which means that there may be many Android devices out there being used to mine cryptocurrency for cybercriminals," a Veo Zhang, a mobile threat analyst with Trend Micro wrote in the blog.
"Analyzing the code of these apps reveal the cryptocurrency mining code inside. Unlike the other malicious apps, in these cases the mining only occurs when the device is charging, as the increased energy usage won't be noticed as much."..
Source: Technology News 2014
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