Report: Malware infects
1.69 million Android handsets
in South Africa
Secure-D from Upstream detected
1.69 million malware-infected
Android devices in South Africa
last year. Within many popular apps,
malware is lurking unseen and committing
background fraud that targets advertisers,
operators and consumers. The blocked
transactions came from more than 18,000
different applications.
While the rogue apps behave normally on
a smartphone’s screen, they surreptitiously
click on links and adverts, sign users up to
subscription services and consume vast
amounts of data from prepaid contracts.
Not only do advertisers pay app developers
for the false clicks, the fraudulent apps are
also used to steal personal data about the
smartphone user without any visible sign of
the fraudulent activity.
Specialist mobile security company,
Upstream, works with a number of
operators in South Africa to protect
consumers and businesses from this
type of fraud. The company’s Secure-D
platform monitors app activity and blocks
suspicious transactions. In an end of year
report, Upstream revealed that it checked
more than 50 million Android transactions
in South Africa in 2019, identifying and
blocking 86% of them as fraudulent.
Fraudsters recognise that smartphone
users regularly watch and share videos and
they often hide malicious activity in video
apps. In 2019, South Africa’s worst three
offending apps were all video apps:
1. VidMate: 15 million blocked transactions
Downloaded worldwide more than 500
million times – Vidmate lets people
download videos and songs from popular
social media sites and entertainment
services, allowing users to watch content
offline. In the background, however, a
hidden component generates fake clicks and
purchases and downloads other suspicious
apps without the user’s knowledge.
2. Snaptube: Two million blocked transactions
The Snaptube video app infected 4.4 million
handsets and generated more than 70
million fraudulent transactions, with two
million of those transactions originating in
South Africa. Upstream exposed Snaptube in
October 2019 but it is also still available on
third-party Android app stores.
3. Vivavideo: 560,000 blocked transactions
A very popular video editing software
app for smartphones, Vivavideo has been
downloaded more than 100 million times
worldwide. But just like Vidmate, its
background behaviour leaves a lot to be
desired and Secure D was working hard to
block more than half a million fraudulent
transactions in South Africa alone.
Global results
According to a report on the state
of malware and mobile ad fraud
released by Upstream, 93% of mobile
transactions in 20 countries were blocked
as fraudulent in 2019.
Data from the Invisible Digital Threat
is based on deployments of Upstream’s
Secure-D full-stack anti-fraud platform,
which detects and blocks fraudulent mobile
transactions that primarily originated from
ad fraud malware. At the end of 2019,
Secure-D was used by 31 mobile operators in
20 countries.
In those markets, Upstream’s security
platform processed 1.71 billion mobile
transactions and blocked 1.6 billion of
them as fraudulent, a staggering 93% of
total transactions.
It’s estimated that these transactions
would have cost users US$2.1 billion in
unwanted charges had they not been
identified. For the industry, losses from
online, mobile and in-app advertising
reached US$42 billion in 2019. •
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INTELLIGENT
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