This Chinese Phone Maker Installed 2 Crore Malware To Profit From Users!

Chinese smartphone manufacturer, Gionee, has been reprimanded by a Chinese court for infecting as many as 20 million smartphones with malware.

The company has been found to have infected these phones between the time of December 2018 and October 2019. 

Read on to find out all the details!

Gionee Accused Of Infecting 20 Million Smartphones Through Apps 

As per a report by China Judgment Document Network, Gionee has infected 20 million smartphones with Trojan Horse through an app. As per reports, the app was being used as a tool to profit from users with the help of unsolicited ads, and other illegal means.

The report states that a Trojan horse program was installed on the phones of users through the update of the Story Lock Screen app. A plug-in called “Dark Horse Platform” was installed on the app. 

The court has revealed that in the nine months between December 2018 and October 2019, Shenzhen Zhipu, which is a subsidiary of Gionee, and Beijing Baice have carried out the pull activities for as much as 2.88 billion times.

As of April 2019, more than 21.75 million devices were infected, of which, 26,519,921 Gionee mobile phones were infected in October alone. 

Through this, Shenzhen Zhipu and Beijing Baice have earned RMB 27.85 million.

How Were 20 Million Smartphones Infected By Gionee?

As per the report, the software is automatically updated on the infected Gionee phone without letting the user know by using the Pull method. 

In December 2018, the existing pull method was deemed insufficient. After this, Wang Dengke suggested the implant of the hot update plug-in “Dark Horse Platform” into apps such as “Story Lock Screen”. After this, the application and its SDK version with Trojan plug-ins were upgraded. 

The Dark Horse Platform was used to install and update the “Living Trojan Horse” without the knowledge of the user.

Xu Li, Zhu Ying, Jia Zhengqiang, and Pan Qi have been found guilty by the court. Xu Li, Zhu Ying, and Jia Zhengqiang have been sentenced for three years, Pan Qi has been sent to prison for six months. All the criminals have also been fined for CNY 200,000, which is about Rs 22,57,000.