Budget smartphone brand Gionee made more than US$4 million after employees infected 20 million phones with malware
- Employees of a Gionee subsidiary were sentenced to 3 to 3.5 years in prison this week for installing malware on the company’s phones
- Chinese budget brands serving developing countries have had multiple malware issues but experts say this will likely not dent enthusiasm for them
A court in China last week sentenced four people to between 3 and 3.5 years in prison for infecting 20 million smartphones of budget brand Gionee with malware, reviving fears over the safety and security of budget Chinese smartphones.
This is not the first time that cheap Chinese smartphones have been infected with malicious code – but this time the parties that implanted the malware were employees of the company itself.
The four sentenced were employees of a Gionee subsidiary, Shenzhen Zhipu Technology, and the company’s partner Beijing Baice Technology.
Between December 2018 and October 2019 the malware – software that is designed to damage or compromise computers and networks – generated more than 27.85 million yuan (US$4.25 million) in profit for the two companies, according to a ruling by the court in Yiwu, Zhejiang province.
The malware involved in the Gionee case was designed to execute so-called “live pulling”, a function that would generate clicks, explains Michael Gazeley, managing director at online security service provider Network Box Corporation.
“There are a lot of advertising platforms out there where as you create clicks, those clicks are worth a tiny amount of money each,” he said. “Of course if you generate millions and millions of clicks, then that actually becomes a significant income.”