US security experts warn about a virus infecting mobile phones using Google’s Android operating system has emerged in China that can allow a hacker to gain access to personal data dubbed ‘Geinimi‘.  Lookout, a mobile security blog, run by San Francisco-based Lookout Mobile Security say it is the most sophisticated piece of Android malware seen to date. This is also the first Android malware in the wild to display botnet-like capabilities, handing over control of the phone to a remote server.

Lookout cited some applications which carry the Trojan. They include apps such as Monkey Jump 2, Sex Positions, President vs. Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010, which are available in Chinese app stores. Researchers have discovered that once the software containing Geinimi is launched, the malware runs in the background, collecting personal information contained on the Android phone, including location information and information that can identify the device and SIM Card. The malware then connects to remote servers at regular intervals using one of a set of domain names hard-coded into the software – including www.widifu.com, www.frijd.com and www.piajesj.com, all of whose domain information show as being registered to a contact in Shanghai, China.

This is not the first time Android users have come under attack from malicious software. Russian users were targeted recently by a trojan that sent SMS messages to premium-rate numbers. The Trojan, which affected an unknown number of users, appeared on Russian-language sites offering pornographic video clips.

While the security firm said it has already updated both the paid and free versions of its software to protect against Geinimi.

Via toptech