Virus or Malware?
First, let me start by saying, I love my new Droid-X, but not so much, the hack. On Monday afternoon (01/10/11) I traded in my Blackberry for a new Droid-X phone with Verizon. I will admit that I’m not up to speed on the open source Android modified Linux OS of the phone. I don’t know if it’s even possible to hack the phone. It seems like it would be, but here are the facts. I had an incident similar to yours, where my new Droid-X seemed to have a mind of its own.
If my phone didn’t do it directly, it seems that it somehow facilitated - permitted the Gmail hack. I’m not sure how, Malware maybe? My Gmail account has never been hacked prior to Monday. The hack occurred within 24 hours of the Verizon people setting up my new Droid phone. The Droid is linked to Gmail and Facebook. I use both. While driving to work at 5:20 AM on Tuesday 01/11/11 my phone “woke-up” lit-up and came out of sleep mode – on its own. It did not un-lock, but was quite visible, sitting on the car seat in the dark. From what I can tell, it looks like my Droid took the address of everyone that I ever emailed, or received email from, in my Gmail account, and somehow sent out two spammer-link type emails on its own. Or, maybe it allowed the hacker to penetrate my email account using the information obtained from my phone? The first email was sent at 5:29 AM while I was driving in my car, the second email was sent while the phone was sitting on my desk at work at 8:20 AM. I don’t know how this was done, and it was extremely embarrassing. It even sent the emails to my work computer, which is how I discovered the problem. I turned my phone off, and the spamming ceased.
This is a strange coincidence. I get a new phone, and my email is subsequently hacked and spamming everybody inside of 24 hours?
Verizon folks were clueless about this incident, and claimed that nobody hacked their server, but they gave me a phone number for their fraud department. I called them, left a message, but haven’t heard back yet.
There is nothing in my sent mail or trash folder on my phone or Gmail account, and my computer at work and home were - are currently “clean” – malware and virus free. I have since set up a new Gmail account just for my droid phone, and changed the password on both Gmail accounts and Facebook. I started Google searching, but have not totally narrowed it down yet. It looks like factory installed Malware on the brand new phone – straight out of the box. I have not downloaded any apps prior to this incident. I found what looks like some anti-Virus / Malware apps for the Droid, but would appreciate an expert opinion. What is the best method, and software for eliminating the Malware on my phone? Anyone with a suggestion? Thanks.