Researchers at Doctor Web found a new trojan app in the Google Play store that can launch distributed denial of service attacks when opened.

Android.DDoS.1.origin, as it’s called, is Russian and disguises itself as the Google Play icon once downloaded. When opened, the app takes its victims to the actual Google Play store so as to distract the user. In the background, however, it searches for its command and control server — and if a connection is made, the app sends the infected phone’s number to the criminals. These hackers then administer commands to the app via text messages.

Commands include launching a DDoS attack or sending other text messages. Doctor Web suggests that the text message function could be used to spam others in the phone’s contact list, prompting them to either download the app or something else the hackers are pushing.

Nowadays when we think of DDoS attacks, we often are reminded of Anonymous, the hacker collective that launches a number of these attacks in the name of political protest. We’ve seen DDoS attacks take down a number of important websites including the CIA’s, financial institutions, and others. These attacks send large amounts of traffic toward a certain website’s servers in an attempt to overload the system and shut it down.

With this app, however, hackers with DDoS intentions are roping in innocent bystanders to do the dirty work. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen a campaign like this. In the case of the CIA website’s take down, Anonymous was accused of distributing links on Twitter to low-orbit-ion-canons (LOIC). These “cannons” send thousands of packets of information to a targeted server per second. When the Twitter links were clicked on, unsuspecting visitors would suddenly be roped into the attack.

Doctor Web goes on to say that the app can cause the phone to perform poorly, and can actually run up the owner’s bill by texting premium numbers.

hat tip The Next Web; Android image via Shutterstock, App image via Doctor Web

Anonymous bullhorn @YourAnonNews is claiming that the hacktivist group has taken down the Central Intelligence Agency‘s website.

“CIA TANGO DOWN: https://www.cia.gov/ #Anonymous,” a person behind @YourAnonNews tweeted.

The attack took place roughly around 12:10 p.m. Pacific time on Friday, and the website is still down an hour later.

Anonymous traditionally has “F*ck FBI Friday,” in which it attempts to take down or release information about the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Last week, the group released a phone call regarding Anonymous that took place between the FBI and Scotland Yard.

The group recently took down the US Department of Justice website as well as a number of a record label websites in response to the shutdown of file sharing website MegaUpload. Low-orbit-ion-cannons (LOIC) were used to issue denial of service attacks to the many websites it was targeting at the time. Denial of service attacks send multiple data requests to a website in the hopes of overloading its servers, resulting in the website becoming inaccessible. These requests are also called “packets,” thousands of which can be quickly sent using LOIC.

Anonymous was also accused of providing links on Twitter, which would install LOIC on any computer that clicked the link. These links helped Anonymous recruit innocent bystanders to their cause, launching denial of service attacks from any of the computers that accessed the link.

A similar attack may have been used to take down the CIA website, although it doesn’t look like the group distributed any of the same links that helped take down the DOJ.

hat tip RT

Anonymous image via Shutterstock

“While SOPA and PIPA may be postponed from congress, this does not guarantee that our Internet rights will be upheld,” said an Anonymous member in a dramatic YouTube video proposing the take-down.

Last week websites “blacked out” as a form of protest against SOPA and PIPA, bills aimed at reducing copyright infringement at the cost of what some say will be censorship. Soon thereafter the government took down file sharing website Megaupload for copyright infringement, sending Anonymous on a hunt to take down various record labels’ websites, as well as the Department of Justice. Now, for at least one Anonymous member, taking down Facebook is the next way U.S. citizens can get the government’s attention.

“There is no way you can get caught,” said the member. “Hundreds of thousands of us citizens and those of the Anonymous idea will all be participating … This is your chance. Our chance. The fate of the Internet rests in your hands.”

In a YouTube video posted this morning, the group calls on the U.S. public to download the same tool used to take down the DOJ website last week. The tool is called LOIC, or a Low Orbit Ion Cannon. This tool shuts websites down by launching information packets at the servers thousands of times. When a website’s servers are processing so many access requests, it overloads and shuts down. But Facebook isn’t just a computer in a Harvard dorm room anymore. It has a massive number of servers, aimed at holding the site up for its 800 million members.

“While it is true that Facebook has at least 60,000 servers, it is still possible to bring it down,” said the Anonymous member. “Anonymous needs the help of the people.”

The tool must be used at the same time in order to be affective on this many servers, according to the member, who has set the time of 12am (we’re assuming UTC) on January 28 for the attack. Around that time, watch out for links on the Twitter handles of Anonymous members. During last week’s attacks on the DOJ, some members were tricking people into “helping the cause” by providing links to LOIC, which would then use an innocent bystander’s computer to take down the targeted site.

In 2011, the group vowed to “kill” the social network on November 5, the same date Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested watching explosives to be used in an assassination attempt against King James I. Soon after announcing its intentions, other members of Anonymous explained the attack was created by exterior Anonymous members and was not supported by most of the group.

Whether this one is legitimate or not, the group seems to have a sense of humor. To send LOIC off into a server crashing rampage, a user must click a button reading, ” IMMA CHARGIN MAH LASER.”  And, for Anonymous, these lasers are set to stun.

hat tip CNET