Various Cheap Tablets Sold on Amazon Reportedly Come Packed with Cloudsota Malware
This holiday season will more than likely break new records as consumers flock to local stores and the Internet to purchase new items, including cheap tablet computers from sites like Amazon, which some are allegedly coming packed with malware.
Amazon is proudly touted as one of the largest e-commerce sites in existence where you can probably find just about any computer item out on the market. As it turns out, recent purchases of some tablets sold on Amazon are coming with pre-installed malware that is deleting apps and forcing users to look at unwanted advertisements.
According to an investigation by the Chinese mobile company known as Cheetah Mobile, there is a Trojan horse threat called "Cloudsota" loaded on some tablet computers sold on the Amazon site from more than 30 different brands. As you may guess, none of them are iPads or Google Nexus tablets but instead, they are low-end models from manufacturers that you may not have heard of the name.
The no-name tablets sold on Amazon with malware infections all are all using the Allwinner chipset, which is rooted from a China-based fabless semiconductor company.
The Cloudsota malware infection reach is turning out to be larger than expected as Cheetah has found that over 17,000 infected tablets have been sold, mostly through Amazon. However, the infected no-name tablets are available for purchase on other sites on the Internet.
What we know about Cloudsota malware is that it is prone to installing adware and other unknown malware on infected devices. When those components are loaded, they usually run in the background while they uninstall antivirus applications and obtain root permissions. Additionally, Cloudsota may automatically open up installed programs and replace boot animation and wallpapers with advertisements. At the same time, the malware may change the default home page on any web browser application to redirect to a questionable Internet search sites where the results come laced with ads.
Looking at the listings of the malware-infected tablets for sale on Amazon reveals randomized complaints in the review sections. Some consumers listed on a $59.99 tablet infected with Cloudsota that the malware cannot be removed. Others have posted reviews on $79.99 tablets claiming the tablet itself is great but it came pre-installed with Trojan.coudw.a in two system files, which is a technical name for Cloudsota.
The bulk of malware-infected tablets sold on Amazon are orders that are fulfilled by a third party vendor, which means that Amazon holds the stock in its warehouses but does not directly supply the product.
Surprisingly, this isn't the very first time that an occurrence like this has taken place. In the past, there have been instances of laptops sold on the Internet coming bundled with malware and even a case where a particular smartphone was pre-loaded with a Trojan that tracks user activity.
Unfortunately, we won't see the last of new cheap or no-name devices sold on the Internet coming pre-loaded with some form of malware.
At times, it may be prudent to use take heed to the old saying, "if it is too good to be true it probably is" when it comes to purchasing cheap electronics that claim perform functions the same as a competitor that costs $300 or more.