Earlier today, news began to circulate that Sony’s Backup and Restore app on Google Play for the company’s line of Xperia devices was hacked. Appearing on Google Play and available to download for free, the app in question mimicked everything about Sony’s official app from wording to design with one obvious difference, the top part of the app was replaced with HeArT HaCkEr Group. Many took this as a sign that Sony’s internal servers had been compromised and an update had been pushed from within the company with the above changes. As Backup and Restore is an official system app from Sony, there is no way to delete the program and those who’ve given it permission will have potentially already had their information compromised.

That is, if Sony’s servers were hacked – but that’s not what happened at all.

First, let’s get the official word from Sony.

 Sony Mobile takes the security and privacy of customer data very seriously. We are currently investigating these reports. More information will follow as soon as we have fully assessed the situation. 

So has Sony been hacked? Absolutely not. First and foremost, the Backup & Restore app from Sony as we mentioned is an official app that doesn’t appear on Google Play. Instead, it’s preinstalled on each Xperia device from the factory. When an update is required for the app, Sony pushes them through firmware updates which once again is irrelevant to Google Play. So what’s happening?

It seems some Indian developer (Nirav Patel, though I’m sure that’s not their real name) has spoofed Sony’s design and created a fake app to make it look like Sony’s official app has been hacked. From there, the developer used Sony’s signature (com.sonymobile.synchub) and placed it within their app to make it appear as if it’s a preinstalled app. Unfortunately due to Google’s lax policies, the app was able to make it to the Google Play store front and be downloaded. For those who mistook the app to be real and downloaded it, there appears to be little repercussion as the app shows a package error.

Since then, it appears that Google has wised up to the fake app, likely due to the community reporting it and has taken it down from the Google Play store front.

Discuss:

Did you download the fake Sony Backup & Restore app?

[Via Xperia Blog]