Software from companies including AVG, Bitdefender, ESET, Norton and Trend Micro detected between 65 and 90 percent of malware.

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Security firm ESET have released a free app, available from the Google Play store, that will protect Android handsets from this sort of attack.

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Sophos is primarily an end point anti-virus company competing with larger vendors like Symantec, McAfee (Intel), and Trend as well as several dozen smaller vendors like Kaspersky Labs, Eset, GFI Sunbelt, and AVG.

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The app is called ESET USSD Control.

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