The Android security team was feeling pleased with itself. The group had detected, analyzed, and neutralized a sophisticated botnet built on tainted apps that all worked together to power ad and SMS fraud. Dubbed “Chamois,” the malware family had already cropped up in 2016, and was being distributed both through Google Play and third-party app stores. So the Android team started aggressively flagging and helping to uninstall Chamois until they were sure it was dead.

Article Link – Wired – How Android Fought An Epic Botnet – And Won

Discussion Questions:

1. What in the article did you find most interesting? Provide three key takeaways from the article.
2. How does Chamois malware work? what was it designed to do?
3. What steps did Android take to remove the Chamois threat?

Source: Lily Hay Newmam, Wired, “How Android Fought An Epic Botnet – And Won”, www.wired.com, Aptil 9, 2019.