We’re not going to lie, when Google introduced its “Bouncer” solution to the malware problem evident in the Android Market – it was comforting to know they would take antivirus protection into their own hands. Well, it seems that may not make a lick of difference for some rare cases. Professor Xuxian Jiang at North Carolina State University have recently found a new form of malware threatening Android’s security.

It’s completely undetectable to current antivirus programs, and still causes just as much havoc. They’ve codnamed it ‘Rootsmart’, and it downloads code from a remote server without any way of knowing it’s running in the background. This downloaded code is then used to compromise your text messages, phone calls, and even data usage.

If Google Bouncer or any other antivirus doesn’t detect a virus, then there’s just no way to tell it’s there to the untrained eye. There is however a way to prevent encountering this malicious software. Don’t go downloading illegal ‘cracked’ versions of applications from mass sharing sites, and make sure what you are downloading is legit through conducting a little background research. It’s terrible to be a victim of identity theft, so do what you can to prevent it from happening.

[via Forbes]