A new strain of Android ransomware is threatening the mobile industry, the new variant spreads itself via SMSs and holds the victim’s device phone hostage until a ransom is paid.

Implementing a classic extortion scheme locks the victim’s device display and then requests money from victims. The malware displays fake notifications from law enforcement agencies that accuse victims of viewing and storing child pornography. The security firm has already observed thousands of messages from hundreds of infected phones, mainly located in the USA. The attack scenario is very interesting, to spread itself, it first sends an SMS message to all contacts in the mobile’s address book with a text.