Hackers have found a new weak link in your smartphone – your battery. Smartphones consume much energy, making the users worry about the battery running out. Hackers know this and have started populating the Android market with apps that ‘help’ replenish the battery.

Symantec, the IT security solutions firm, has noticed Android apps that really charge and enhance battery performance. “But they steal critical information from your device,” the company said in the Intelligence Report for September 2012. The mobile malware developers have been attracted to Android because apps have become integral to mobile phones with users ready to go to any lengths to download apps that enhance the device’s performance.

“The high processing power of embedded CPUs and large, bright LCD screens, coupled with frequent usage of app, make battery life a perennial problem for device users. This has spawned a whole genre of applications aimed at addressing this problem,” the report pointed out. There are apps that will offer status updates on battery life, notify you when your battery is getting low and turn off features and apps that are not necessary. “We found a bunch of apps that promises to charge the battery using solar energy. They claim that they can turn your phone screen into a solar charger,” the Symantec report said.

The report advises users to keep away from such apps till the time the manufacturers really install it on the phones. Till then, it is good to continue charging the phone using the regular chargers. “If an app requests permissions that seem out of the ordinary for what it is supposed to do, then don’t install it,” it recommended.

Though the incidence of phishing (one in 245.4 emails) and malware (one in 211 emails contained malware) remained at August levels, the number of malicious Web sites (780 Web sites blocked per day), registered a decrease of 29.1 per cent since August.

kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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