Malicious Software Effect on the Mobile Devices Power Consumption

Abstract

The computer programs, which provide malefactors with the data concerning the usage of an infected mobile device can be referred to malicious software. As a rule, the information is as follows: device location, keys and passwords entered by a user, SMS and telephone conversations contents, e-mail contents and many other. Malicious software can be secretly input to a mobile device, e.g. with the help of Internet. On inputting such kind of Software adjusts the system data in order to conceal its presence in an infected device. At the same time the malicious software cannot be recognized as a computer virus since it does not include the program codes realizing the virus multiplication and infection of other devices. That is why the popular antivirus software does not react to the presence of the malicious software in a device. Thus, we can say that there exists an issue of detection of malicious software presence in a mobile device. To solve the problem a method of indirect detection of malicious software developed by the authors is described in the Chapter. The method is based on a hypothesis of power consumption increase in a mobile device after its being infected by malicious software. Because malicious software taps such power-consuming functions of a device as usage of GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile Internet. To experimentally verify the assumption represented an appropriate experiment was made. It provides the comparison of the smartphone power consumption level in the case of the normal uninfected condition to the one in the case of inputting a spy malicious program. The experiment demonstrated the correctness of the hypothesis and showed that after the input of malicious software the smartphone power consumption increases. The proposed method is a universal one and can be used for any mobile devices running under the control of any operating systems.