According to Secure-D and BuzzFeed News, the low-cost Tecno W2 smartphone has shipped with a malware that subscribes to paid services to steal the user’s money. The budget smartphone sells in African countries like Egypt, Ghana, and South Africa along with Indonesia and Myanmar.
The malware in question here is the Triada and xHelper software. It silently downloads and subscribes to apps which are paid services. This causes the user to have not only high bills but high consumption of data as well. The thing is, this budget smartphone is attractive to the poorer section of society, those looking for budget smartphone offerings. The biggest downside is that this malware cannot be removed even by factory resetting the smartphone.
According to Android Authority, “Transsion, the China-based company behind the Tecno brand, has pinned the malware on an unnamed “vendor in the supply chain process.” It said that it delivered fixes for Triada in March 2018 and xHelper in late 2019. However, the issue doesn’t appear to have gone away. Secure-D said it was still blocking Triada and xHelper on Transsion phones through April 2020, and it may simply be dormant”.
This isn’t the first time the malware has made an appearance. According to Secure-D, the pre-installed malware was previously discovered on Alcatel phones made by TCL in markets like Brazil, Malaysia, and Nigeria.
Kenneth Adu-Amanfoh, the executive director of the Africa Cybersecurity and Digital Rights Organization told BuzzFeed, “You have all these wonderful features for cheap, but there is a hidden cost. There are a lot of Chinese phones that have malware installed on it.”
According to the BuzzFeed report, “People in the United States are also being exploited. Earlier this year, Malwarebytes, a security service, found preinstalled malware of Chinese origin in two phones offered to citizens with low incomes as part of the US government’s Lifeline program, which provides subsidized phones and mobile data. Both phones were made by Chinese companies.”
In case you were wondering how severe the malware is, the security firm Secure-D has “blocked 844,000 transactions connected to preinstalled malware on Transsion phones between March and December 2019”.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, everyone is resorting to staying indoors and this has led to educational institutes and offices move to a study from home and work from home model. The lower-income group of society has resorted to budget smartphones to ensure they can stay connected and their children can participate in online classes.
Chinese brand Huawei is under scrutiny for spying and the world is moving towards banning TikTok for security reasons. In India, local manufacturing is looking to ramp up as local consumers have an anti-China sentiment due to the recent tensions on the border. Brands like Micromax are looking to make a comeback in India while Apple is not only beginning the production of the iPhone SE 2020 in India but also looking to Assemble its upcoming iPhone 12 in India by the middle of 2021.
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