Report: Chinese phone comes preloaded with spyware
Source: AP-Excite
By RAPHAEL SATTER and FRANK JORDANS
BERLIN (AP) — A cheap brand of Chinese-made smartphones carried by major online retailers comes preinstalled with espionage software, a German security firm said Tuesday.
G Data Software said it found malicious code hidden deep in the propriety software of the Star N9500 when it ordered the handset from a website late last month. The find is the latest in a series of incidents where smartphones have appeared preloaded with malicious software.
G Data spokesman Thorsten Urbanski said his firm bought the phone after getting complaints about it from several customers. He said his team spent more than a week trying to trace the handset's maker without success.
"The manufacturer is not mentioned," he said. "Not in the phone, not in the documentation, nothing else."
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140617/eu--germany-malicious_phone-23e14a238f.html
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I'm shocked I telly ya. Shocked!
- NSA or Verizon? It's hard tell them apart without a scorecard now......
Malware's in the firmware, so it can't be deleted.
Malware prevents proper updates
Malware siphons off data and sends it to a server in china.
Did I mention it's in the firmware ? This is pretty as low level as you can get - not an add on or intercepted and patched, this was deliberate by the manufacturer or in collusion with hacker org.
Any Lenovo owners out there? 
Oh, I see, it's a password, etc thing. I was thinking it was China performing espionage.
Too many 007 movies for me. 
Here's the phone:
http://www.amazon.com/Generic-Star-N9500-Android-MTK6589/dp/B00C3UYRYA
Thanks Amazon.
