Over 190.3 million people in the US own smartphones, but many do not know exactly what a mobile device can disclose to third parties about its owner. Mobile malware is spiking, and is all too often pre-installed on a user’s device. Following its findings in 2014 that the Star N9500 Smartphone was embedded with extensive espionage functions, G DATA security experts have continued the investigation and found that over 26 models from some well-known manufacturers including Huawei, Lenovo and Xiaomi, have pre-installed spyware in the firmware. However, unlike the Star devices, the researchers suspect middlemen to be behind this, modifying the device software to steal user data and inject their own advertising to earn money.
