Sophisticated New Android Trojan "Geinimi" Spreading in China

According to mobile security firm Lookout, a new sophisticated Trojan has emerged in China that is affecting Android devices. Lookout Mobile, fresh off announcing a $19.5 Million round of funding last week, said that the Trojan, which it is calling “Geinimi,” can compromise a significant amount of personal data on a user’s phone and send it to remote servers.

In a blog post detailing the discovery, the company says the mobile malware is The most sophisticated Android malware we’ve seen to date, Geinimi is also the first Android malware in the wild that displays botnet-like capabilities. Once the malware is installed on a user’s phone, it has the potential to receive commands from a remote server that allow the owner of that server to control the phone.

What makes the Trojan different than most “standard” mobile malware is that Geinimi is being “grafted” onto repackaged versions of legitimate applications, primarily games, and distributed in third-party Chinese Android app markets.

Lookout says the Geinimi mobile malware has only been seen being distributed via third-party Chinese app stores and has not seen any apps infected with the Geinimi Trojan in the official Google Android Market. Google's Android mobile OS is rapidly growing with over 300,000 Android devices being activated every day, however, Android's openness has turned the Android Market into a breeding ground for malicious applications capable of stealing sensitive user information from the mobile phones.