Google has finally eliminated Chamois, a kind of mountain goat that belongs to one of the largest malware families which have infected millions of Android devices.
Google recently discovered Chamois during its inspection of routine ad-traffic quality. It is a threat that usually delivers large-scale mobile ad fraud and attempts to hijack Android devices. It belongs to one of the largest PHA families that can be distributed using multiple channels.
About 10 million Android devices were previously hacked by these malware families that also include Hummingbad. The attackers who spread the malware earned $300,000 every month using fraudulent ads.
Chamois' business fraud ad mostly relies on the application that produces fake traffic using pop-up ads. It will automatically install some applications in the background that were particularly made for premium SMS fraud. It also executes and downloads extra plugins
Those who installed the malicious application will not notice any changes since the malware does not appear on the device's list. This is also the reason why the malware is not easy to remove since it is hidden.
These malware families are potentially harmful. There is a way to avoid and eliminate them with the use of Verify Apps; a security application that can be downloaded from Google Play Store. It can help users to uninstall malicious software even if it is hidden on the device. Recently, the security feature helped to flag 25,000 apps from Gooligan, Ghost Push, and Hummingbad families.
According to Google, Chamois apps are ranked as the highest on DOI or "dead or infected" scorer. It means it can flag up a huge number of users to initiate a factory reset or to totally abandon the device. Google will reveal further details about other threat caused by Android botnets on it Android Security 2016 Year in Review report.