Android is becoming a popular target
for writers of mobile malwareMore than 50 applications available via the official Android Marketplace have been found to contain a virus.
Analysis suggests that the booby-trapped apps may have been downloaded up to 200,000 times.
The malicious apps were copies of existing applications, such as games, that had been repackaged to include the virus code.
All the apps found to contain the malicious code have now been removed from the Android Marketplace.
The virus-laden apps were discovered by a Reddit user called Lompolo who realised that one program was listed under the name of a publisher he knew had not written it.
He found that the app, which let people play guitar on their handset, was the same as the original but for a name change and some virus code buried within it.
BBC News | 3 Mar 2011 - Read full report
