The forum poster linked the project back to the Sandroid app available on the Google Play Store, referring to SandroRAT as being a kind of “vice-versa” to the Sandroid app, while also commenting on how it remains hidden on the phone. On December 29, 2013, there was an announcement on a hacker forum of a new project called SandroRAT. The authors described the app as being a free tool that lets users control their PC without advertisements. On April 26, 2013, the Sandroid RAT was released on the Google Play Store. This tool has since evolved into DroidJack RAT and is now being openly sold on its own website at a cost of US$210 for a lifetime package.

In August 2014, this same tool was reported in the media to have been used in cybercriminal activity targeting Polish banking users through a phishing email. In their own words, they were “budding entrepreneurs trying to develop and apply skills that we have gained.” With limited success of their legitimate app on the Google Play Store, they soon turned their skills to creating and selling an Android crimeware tool, known as SandroRAT, on a hacker forum. While I was researching a new Android remote administration tool (RAT) known as DroidJack (detected by Symantec as Android.Sandorat), it soon became apparent that its authors had actually started off as Android app developers. However, with over 1 million apps available for download on the Google Play Store, for every success story there are countless apps that fail to deliver. It allows talented software developers to apply their skills to create new and innovative mobile apps, with the hope of becoming the next big thing and, perhaps, even attaining the trappings of wealth associated with success.

Small-scale mobile app software entrepreneurship has been described as the cottage industry of the 21st century.

Droidjack