Android

For years, Android’s security and privacy teams have been wrestling the world’s most popular mobile operating system to make it more controllable and updatable while still being open source and easy to deploy. And while scams, malware, and rogue apps are still real threats, the debut of Android 13 at Google’s I/O developer’s conference on Wednesday feels less like triage mode and more like a logical iteration. As Charmaine D'Silva, Android’s director of product management puts it, “This is the release where we bring it all together.”

Though ransomware has been around for years, it poses an ever-increasing threat to hospitals, municipal governments, and basically any institution that can't tolerate downtime. But along with the various types of PC malware that are typically used in these attacks, there's another burgeoning platform for ransomware as well: Android phones. And new research from Microsoft shows that criminal hackers are investing time and resources in refining their mobile ransomware tools—a sign that their attacks are generating payouts.

Android 11 has finally arrived after a lengthy beta process that started approximately three years ago in February 2020. This is the 30th release of Android, if we're counting by API levels, and in a year when it seems nearly everything has been delayed or canceled, Google has managed to turn in one of the smaller Android releases.

A large number Android phones may be storing 'undeletable' files and apps following a number of widespread attacks, security researchers have warned.

A new report from Kaspersky found that many Android devices that had been hit by cybercrime could still be harbouring malicious files or items without the user's knowledge.

Thousands of Android apps have been found as part of a new study to contain hidden backdoors that facilitate secret behavior, including everything from changing user passwords to preventing users from accessing specific content that’s sometimes political in nature.

Microsoft's first-ever Android phone, and its first self-branded phone, is slowly becoming a reality. The Surface Duo, which was announced a full year before it was planned to release to market, was recently spotted in the wild. Twitter user Israel Rodriguez spotted a person with a prototype device on the Vancouver subway and snuck a spy video out into the world.

Attackers are exploiting a zeroday vulnerability in Google’s Android mobile operating system that can give them full control of at least 18 different phone models, including four different Pixel models, a member of Google’s Project Zero research group said on Thursday night.

Researchers have disclosed a zero-day vulnerability in the Android operating system that gives a major boost to attackers who already have a toe-hold on an affected device.

An organization specialized in testing antivirus products concluded in a report published this week that roughly two-thirds of all Android antivirus apps are a sham and don't work as advertised.

The report, published by Austrian antivirus testing outfit AV-Comparatives, was the result of a grueling testing process that took place in January this year and during which the organization's staff looked at 250 Android antivirus apps available on the official Google Play Store.

It's more important than ever to manage your passwords online, and also harder to keep up with them. That's a bad combination. So the FIDO Alliance—a consortium that develops open source authentication standards—has pushed to expand its secure login protocols to make seamless logins a reality. Now Android's on board, which means 1 billion devices can say goodbye to passwords in more digital services than seen before.