- Jan 24, 2011
- 9,379
A Chinese advertising company is responsible for two of the biggest waves of malware for both the Android and iOS ecosystems, a recent Check Point report reveals.
Yingmob, an advertising company based in Chongqing, China, is supposedly the group behind the YiSpecter iOS malware and the HummingBad Android malware.
Both function in the same way, meaning they infect devices to show ads and secretly install other applications, earning their creators money from pay-per-install programs.
Crooks making over $300,000 each month
Check Point estimates that HummingBad alone delivers over 20 million ads per day that achieve a click rate of 12.5 percent, which is the equivalent of 2.5 million clicks per day. Additionally, HummingBad installs over 50,000 fraudulent apps per day.
Putting all these numbers together, Yingmob earns over $3,000 per day from clicks alone and another $7,500 from fraudulent app installs. That's around $300,000 each month, or $3.6 million per year.
Check Point researchers say that HummingBad has managed to infect 85 million devices at the moment, and Yingmob has complete control over these smartphones because it illegally rooted the devices and can push any type of malware or make the devices take any action.
Read more: Chinese Advertiser Behind YiSpectre iOS Malware and HummingBad Android Malware
Yingmob, an advertising company based in Chongqing, China, is supposedly the group behind the YiSpecter iOS malware and the HummingBad Android malware.
Both function in the same way, meaning they infect devices to show ads and secretly install other applications, earning their creators money from pay-per-install programs.
Crooks making over $300,000 each month
Check Point estimates that HummingBad alone delivers over 20 million ads per day that achieve a click rate of 12.5 percent, which is the equivalent of 2.5 million clicks per day. Additionally, HummingBad installs over 50,000 fraudulent apps per day.
Putting all these numbers together, Yingmob earns over $3,000 per day from clicks alone and another $7,500 from fraudulent app installs. That's around $300,000 each month, or $3.6 million per year.
Check Point researchers say that HummingBad has managed to infect 85 million devices at the moment, and Yingmob has complete control over these smartphones because it illegally rooted the devices and can push any type of malware or make the devices take any action.
Read more: Chinese Advertiser Behind YiSpectre iOS Malware and HummingBad Android Malware
