More than 1 million cell phones in China have been infected with a virus that continually sends out text messages, costing the country’s citizens $300,000 a day.
The ‘zombie' virus is hidden in a fake anti-virus app. Once installed, the virus sends all of the names and phone numbers on a user’s SIM card to the hackers, who automatically take control the phone and send spam texts to friends and family. The texts are usually full of links that will infect others with the virus or are sent to pay-to-text phone numbers, racking in cash for the hackers. The virus infected one million users by the end of the first week of September and has continued to grow since then. China’s National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team Center is working to solve the problem.
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