Fake Instagram app infects Android devices with malware

Fake Instagram app infects Android devices with malware

First of all, Instagram released a first version for Android and managed to get five million downloads in less than a week.

Then the 13-employee firm managed to sell itself to Facebook for a cool $1 billion, making some of us wonder about privacy, and others think - "to heck with that, do I have a program that's never earnt any money that I might be able to flog to Mark Zuckerberg?".

Naturally, the Facebook acquisition news raised Instagram to even higher levels of public awareness and that's where the bad guys stepped in.

Cybercriminals have created fake versions of the Instagram Android app, designed to earn money from unsuspecting users.

Here's a Russian website which purports to offer the Instagram app:

If you download your app from this site, rather than an official Android marketplace such as Google Play, then you are running the risk of infecting your smartphone.

Sophos products detect the malware as Andr/Boxer-F.