Report: Malware infects 1.69 million
Android handsets in South Africa
ecure-D from Upstream detected
S
1.69 million malware-infected
Android devices in South Africa
last year. Within many popular apps,
malware is lurking unseen and committing
background fraud that targets advertisers,
operators and consumers. The blocked
transactions came from more than 18,000
different applications.
intelligent MOBILE SECURITY
While the rogue apps behave normally
on a smartphone’s screen, they
surreptitiously click on links and adverts,
sign users up to subscription services
and consume vast amounts of data
from prepaid contracts. Not only do
advertisers pay app developers for the
false clicks, the fraudulent apps are also
used to steal personal data about the
smartphone user without any visible sign
of the fraudulent activity.
Specialist mobile security company,
Upstream, works with a number of
operators in South Africa to protect
consumers and businesses from this
type of fraud. The company’s Secure-D
platform monitors app activity and
blocks suspicious transactions. In an
end of year report, Upstream revealed
that it checked more than 50 million
Android transactions in South Africa in
2019, identifying and blocking 86% of
them as fraudulent.
Fraudsters recognise that smartphone
users regularly watch and share videos
and they often hide malicious activity in
video apps. In 2019, South Africa’s worst
three offending apps were all video apps:
1. VidMate: 15 million blocked
transactions. Downloaded worldwide
more than 500 million times – Vidmate
lets people download videos and songs
from popular social media sites and
entertainment services, allowing users to
watch content offline. In the background,
however, a hidden component
generates fake clicks and purchases,
and downloads other suspicious apps
without the user’s knowledge.
2. Snaptube: Two million blocked
transactions. The Snaptube video
app infected 4.4 million handsets
and generated more than 70 million
fraudulent transactions, with two million
of those transactions originating in South
Africa. Upstream exposed Snaptube in
October 2019 but it is also still available
on third-party Android app stores.
3. Vivavideo: 560,000 blocked
transactions. A very popular video
editing software app for smartphones,
Vivavideo has been downloaded more
than 100 million times worldwide.
But just like Vidmate, its background
behaviour leaves a lot to be desired
and Secure D was working hard to
block more than half a million fraudulent
transactions in South Africa alone.
Global results
According to a report on the state of
malware and mobile ad fraud released
by Upstream, 93% of mobile transactions
in 20 countries were blocked as
fraudulent in 2019. Data from the
Invisible Digital Threat is based on
deployments of Upstream’s Secure-D
full-stack anti-fraud platform, which
detects and blocks fraudulent mobile
transactions that primarily originated
from ad fraud malware.
At the end of 2019, Secure-D was used
by 31 mobile operators in 20 countries.
In those markets, Upstream’s security
platform processed 1.71 billion mobile
transactions and blocked 1.6 billion of
them as fraudulent, a staggering 93%
of total transactions. It’s estimated
that these transactions would have
cost users US$2.1 billion in unwanted
charges had they not been identified.
For the industry, losses from online,
mobile and in-app advertising reached
US$42 billion in 2019. u
58 Issue 26 |
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