Two researchers have demonstrated a mobile botnet of almost 8,000 iPhones and Android smartphones, in order to demonstrate the devices' vulnerability to malware.

"Derek Brown and Daniel Tijerina, security researchers with TippingPoint's Digital Vaccine Group, demonstrated how their seemingly innocuous weather app -- called WeatherFist -- gathers information on the users who downloaded it, including their GPS coordinates and phone numbers," writes DarkReading's Kelly Jackson Higgins.

"The researchers wrote the app, which links to the Weather Underground Website and provides local and other weather forecast information to its users, and submitted it to app clearinghouses that offer apps for Androids and jailbroken iPhones," Higgins writes.

Click here to read the DarkReading article.