 "Jay-Z's app hijacked by NSA hacktivists")
It may have seemed like an innovative move to give out a million free copies of his latest album to Samsung users, but Jay-Z seems to have run into a bunch of problems with Magna Carta Holy Grail. Besides the album having leaked and the Android app malfunctioning, it has been revealed that the application needed to download the album may have been targeted by hackers to install malware into phones.
McAfee researcher Irfan Asrar wrote in a blog post that the company had identified a new Android Trojan that came embedded in a pirated copy of Jay-Z’s app. The app looked legit on the surface, says Asrar, but it worked maliciously at the back end. The malware sent information about the infected device to an external server. It does this every time the phone restarted. It further attempted to download and install additional packages when the phone restarted.
Hijacked!
This cloned app had been set with a time-based trigger that on July 4 – USA’s Independence Day – changed the device’s wallpaper to an anti-Obama message that read “Yes we scan”. The app seems to have been launched by hacktivits who are against Obama and the government’s NSA activities and PRISM. McAfee says that it does not rule out the possibility that additional malware could target financial transactions or other data.
That’s not all of Jay-Z’s 99 problems as far as Magna Carta Holy Grail on Android goes. The legitimate app that was necessary in order for users to download their free copy from Samsung has faced its share of troubles over the Independence Day weekend. Pointed out by fellow rapper Killer Mike, the app’s permission seems to be turning users off the download.
The app requires permission to not just modify or delete contents of your USB storage, it also wants to “prevent phone from sleeping”, access “approximate network location”, needs full network access and wants to read your phone status and identity. The requirement seemed in excess to some users, including Mike, who tweeted, “Naw, I’m cool,” instead of downloading the app.
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