One of Google’s Android partners turned 1.3 million set-top boxes into a botnet
Google has severed ties with manufacturer Videostrong Technology after discovering a backdoor in 1.3 million Android devices. The compromised set-top boxes were used as a botnet for ad fraud and malware distribution.
Why it matters
This incident highlights significant supply chain security risks in the IoT and Android ecosystem, affecting millions of consumer devices.
Google says one of its Android manufacturing partners secretly built a backdoor in 1.3 million devices and turned them into a botnet. The company says it has now dismantled the backdoor and “cut ties” with the manufacturer, the Shenzhen, China-based Videostrong Technology Co., which has been banned from building or selling certified Android devices or supplying software for them.
The infected devices were used without owners’ knowledge for “malicious activity,” like ad fraud, data exfiltration, and routing unauthorized network traffic. Google claims the “backdoor and botnet were intentionally developed, deployed, and operated for financial gain,” saying:
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