Smartphones face threat of next-gen mobile malware

Next-generation mobile malware is only months away and will be able attack the device directly, leading to developments such as mobile botnets, according to Amil Klein, chief technology officer at Trusteer.

Security expert Amil Klein has warned that next-generation mobile malware is months away. Photo credit: Munir Kotadia/ZDNet Australia

Until now, getting malware onto smartphones has involved a PC somewhere along the way, but that is about to change. When malware goes straight to the device, all of the malware techniques already seen in desktop operating systems will be available to mobile malware developers — which means that the development cycle will be rapid.

"The supporting technology... all the command and control tricks, all the evasion tricks, the lovely back-end control panels with databases and nifty GUIs, the concept of real-time mule servers, real-time human interaction, third-party JavaScript injections, encrypted command and control traffic, they were all developed already... in the desktop world," Klein told the AusCERT information security conference on Tuesday.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Bank theft goes truly mobile on ZDNet Australia.