Accessibility Clickjacking Android Malware impacts 500 million Android devices

A new malware affecting Android devices is uncovered by a security firm called SkyCure. The malware dubbed as “accessibility clickjacking”effects nearly 500 million Android devices according to estimates. It is the most cleverest malware and effecting large number of devices. It effects older Android operating systems including Jelly Bean, Ice Cream Sandwich, Kitkat etc. If you are on Android 5.0 Lollipop or Android 6.0 Marshmallow you need not worry otherwise you could be affected.

SkyCure has presented this malware at RSA conference in San Francisco last week. This malware tricks the user into clicking on an element that is different than the user believes to be clicking on. This relies on malicious websites serving benign WebPages but overlayed with malicious attacked sites, this way several services have been attacked, although browsers have implemented measures to mitigate clickjacking Mobiles are still susceptible to these kind of attacks.

It is estimated that around 65 percent of the Android mobile devices currently on the market are affected by this malware, the number comes to around 500 million Android devices on the market as of today. This is largely due to the fragmentation of the Android, phone manufacturers fail to update their devices to the latest Android versions and this is effecting the users in turn.

The threat level associated with the malware is high because it doesn’t need rooting of the device, and requires limited permissions upon installation. Accessibility clickjacking can allow malicious apps to access all text-bases information on the infected Android device and it can do automated tasks through other applications or operating system.

What you can do to protect yourself from this kind of malware is to update your phone to the latest software available, protect your phone with free Antivirus software for Android, do not download apps from third party play stores and don’t sideload apps from untrusted sources.

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