A screenshot of the AllWinner T95 listed on Amazon. Image Credits:<\/strong> TechCrunch (screenshot)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Botnets are usually made up of hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of compromised devices around the world. The operators behind the botnet can use this vast malicious network for mining cryptocurrency on an affected device, stealing data (if any) from the device or the network it\u2019s connected to or harnessing the collective internet bandwidth from these devices to pummel other websites and internet servers with junk traffic, known as a distributed denial-of-service attack, knocking them offline.<\/p>\n

Milisic asked the internet company hosting the command and control servers that dished out instructions to the wider botnet to pull those servers offline, and the servers hosting the ad-click malware disappeared a short time after. He warned, though, that the botnet could come back at any time with new infrastructure.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how large the botnet is. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to quantify the scale of this network,\u201d Budington told TechCrunch. \u201cWhat we do know is that everywhere we look there are different variants of Android trojan malware downloading next-stage malware from the same set of IPs, ones that have been involved in supply-chain attacks in the past. It\u2019s an impressive and unsettling operation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milisic and Budington note that there\u2019s no easy way to remove the malware for the average user. Throwing out the box altogether might be the best option for affected users.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the only way to mitigate this problem is to hold retailers to a higher standard,\u201d Milisic told TechCrunch. Referring to online sellers like Amazon, \u201cthey\u2019re not allowed to sell children\u2019s toys made out of spinning razor blades, why is it OK to let small, unknown vendors sell computers acting maliciously without owners\u2019 knowledge and permission?\u201d<\/p>\n

When reached by TechCrunch, Amazon spokesperson Adam Montgomery declined to say if Amazon reviews the security of the devices it sells or if it plans to remove from sale the malware-containing devices in question.<\/p>\n

AllWinner and RockChip did not return requests for comment.<\/p>\n