Mobile Security Firm Warns of New Android Trojan

Lookout Mobile Security, which just raised fresh capital to boost its fight against mobile malware, said it has identified the peskiest cellphone threat to date.

The Android Trojan, dubbed Geinimi, has cropped up in China and is capable of taking a significant amount of personal data and sending it to remote servers.

Lookout said Geinimi displays botnet-like qualities and is the most sophisticated wireless malware it has seen. Thus far, infected programs have only been seen on various Chinese app stores.

“Geinimi is effectively being ‘grafted’ onto repackaged versions of legitimate applications, primarily games, and distributed in third-party Chinese Android app markets,” Lookout said in a blog post on Wednesday. “The affected applications request extensive permissions over and above the set that is requested by their legitimate original versions.”

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