new virus, broken smartphone?

A new virus that was build to target smartphone in chine has a pretty huge reputation.
The article states:
"Anti-virus firm Lookout Mobile Security estimates that the number of phones that have been infected by the virus, dubbed Geinimi, ranges from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. Researchers said that the virus has yet to wreak havoc, though, and that they were unsure what its authors were seeking to accomplish." 


If you ask me I think they have just started, How many smartphones are in use? 
if it is like 80% there would be more sense in making viruses for Android, iPhone and Windows phone 7 platforms.
In my reacher's over the years I have saw that people make viruses for many reasons: 1. to make money and 2.earn revenge on hate or crime (if you were to hack someone, you would hack them for one of two reasons ether for personal data or pass codes, because when you have data you can easily blackmail someone.
when you have pass codes you can login to whatever the pass code is used for from Facebook to Ebay) 


" Tainted programs
Still, the emergence of Geinimi underlines concerns that hackers are shifting from focusing on attacking PCs to targeting mobile devices as sales of the powerful handheld computers take off and users increasingly put sensitive data in their pockets.

Phones become contaminated with Geinimi when users download software applications that have been repackaged to include the virus, according to researchers from Lookout and Symantec Corp.

Tainted programs include versions of the video games  Monkey Jump 2, President vs Aliens, City Defense and Baseball Superstars 2010, according to Lookout.

Lookout researchers said that so far they have only found the tainted software at third-party apps stores targeting the Chinese market. Legitimate versions of the applications in the official Android market appear to be safe, they said.

Compromised phones call back to a remote computer for instructions on what to do at five-minute intervals. Then they transmit information on the device's location, its hardware ID and SIM card back to the remote computer.

So far the remote computers have been collecting data but have not issued any other orders to the infected phones, Mahaffey said.

Liam Murchu, a research manager with anti-virus software maker Symantec, said that infected devices could be ordered to make calls, send text messages and download other malicious software onto the phones ." 
news 24 http://www.news24.com/SciTech/News/Virus-attacks-Android-phones-20101231