Security researchers were able to trick 8,000 people into downloading a program that could contain malware onto their smart phone. The bait was a seemingly innocent weather application. This study was meant to bring to light how cybercriminals trick people into downloading their malware. The program itself was clean, but the creators had a version that was a trojan horse program. The fact is, the weakest part of any computer security is the end-user.

Once again, one of the best ways to fight viruses and malware is to never assume everyone on the internet is your friend. Just because it is free does not mean it is safe. A common way for malware to install is to trick the user into installing something else because that bypasses all security. In fact, the two most common ways to distrubute viruses and malware is through social engineering tricks (like this one) and by poisoning websites. Social engineering tricks are very common with email where the user is tricked into clicking on a link. But tricking people into downloading a program is also heavily used.

Links related to this study:

• New Scientist: Sneaky app shows potential for smartphone botnets
• Dark Reading: Smartphone Weather App Builds A Mobile Botnet
• Sophos: 8000 iPhone and Android users duped into joining smartphone botnet