Chinese budget smartphone manufacturer Transsion Holdings has been accused of selling thousands of Android handsets in Africa, all of which allegedly came pre-installed with a malware program. An anti-fraud platform that investigated the issue claimed that the company's smartphones with the pre-installed malware have been sold in the continent for over two years.
Mobile software security firm Secure-D revealed that the malware program, called the Triada, was discovered on the company's Tecno W2 smartphone models. The smartphones were primarily being sold in countries such as Cameroon, Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.
According to Secure-D, the Triada malware program automatically registered users to a subscription service without their permission. The service reportedly consumes pre-paid airtime of subscribed users without their knowledge. Even with a reboot, factory reset, or a manual uninstallation of the app, the xHelper code inserted by the Triada malware program continues to persist.
Secure-D stated that it did not detect the malware in any of Transsion's other smartphone models. Its investigation showed that all of the fraudulent subscription requests it had found all came from the company's Tecno W2 models.
In response to the report, Transsion reasoned that the malware may have been installed on its smartphones by an "unidentified vendor" somewhere along its supply chain. The company cited a report published by Google in 2016, which found that Triada malware installations were mostly done by third-party suppliers within the production process. Transsion did not immediately state whether it would attempt to identify the culprit or what its plans of action will be to remove the pre-installed software on its unsold models.
Transsion Holdings is currently one of the largest suppliers of Android smartphones in Africa. The Chinese company has an estimated 41 percent share of the country's entire budget smartphone market. The Shenzhen-based company was listed on China's Star Market tech innovation board last year. The company does not actively sell any of its products in its home market as it has solely chosen to focus on the African continent. Transsion sells its smartphone products in Africa through its sub-brand, Tecno Mobile.
In a separate statement, Tecno Mobile denied that it had anything to do with the installation of the malware program. The company added that it greatly values the data security of its consumers, which is why it regularly sends out security updates to its various handset models.
