Xiny

Cybercriminals do not always use state-of-the-art threats that go after the most modern software and devices available on the market. The authors of the Xiny Android Trojan have decided to go after outdated versions of Android instead of trying to identify vulnerabilities in the latest versions of Google's infamous operating system. Xiny is an Android Trojan that has been around for a few years, and it appears that the majority of its victims use Android versions that are at least a few years old – 12% of the Trojan's victims have been found to use Android 4. Of course, the Xiny Trojan is compatible with more recent Android updates too, and it can infect devices running all versions of Android spanning from Android 5 to Android 9.

Xiny has the ability to provide its attackers with full administrator access to all of the infected device's features, therefore allowing them to perform any task they can think of. They can manage the installed applications and the device's settings, prevent the user from running certain tools meant to control administrator privileges, and install additional software on the infected phone. Of course, the authors of the Xiny Trojan are looking for ways to monetize their campaign, and, so far, their primary goal has been to install referral programs on the infected devices. These applications are harmless, but stacking too many of them on one device may cause performance issues.

Another problem that Xiny may cause is that it will attempt to free up disk space by removing certain pre-installed software on the phone so that it will be able to deploy the pay-per-install referral apps its operators use. Needless to say, this can turn out to be a huge issue since victims may end up losing important programs, files, and data.

To minimize your chances of infecting your device with the Xiny Trojan, you should stick to using software provided by the Google Play Store exclusively. Furthermore, you should invest in a reputable mobile security software suite that will make sure that no files with harmful behavior will be run on your smartphone.