Security researchers have found more malware hosted in Google's official Android market, a discovery that once again demonstrates the limitations of a recently deployed scanning service designed to flag malicious apps before they can be downloaded by end users.
The code for the latest build of Android is now available, meaning anyone with the right knowhow can get modding right this very minute.
Gentleman, screwdrivers at the ready. Jean-Baptiste Queru, Google’s software engineer, made the announcement via Google Groups.
Mobile security company TrustGo has detailed the discovery of a new type of Android malware which operates in China. The trojan – which the company has dubbed MMarketPay.A – is being distributed in nine different third party app stores. When installed on a phone, the trojan is able to buy applications from China Mobile's own marketplace; these purchases then get billed to the victim.
Researchers have claimed skepticism around the existence of a spam botnet on Android devices, despite reports from Sophos and Microsoft claiming the issue was real.
Speculation surrounding the threat began last week when Terry Zink, a program manager for Microsoft Forefront Online Security, claimed spam messages were being sent using the Yahoo Mail app on Android devices.
Whenever there's a new version of Android, Steve Kondik and the CyanogenMod team tend to swing into action almost immediately with plans for a major revision of the fan-favorite platform overhaul. For Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, that swing will be faster than ever.
The crew's early looks suggest that there will only be a few minor tweaks needed to merge Google's latest with the custom Android code, making CyanogenMod 10 a relative snap to produce.
Android malware levels are rising at an alarming rate, according to antivirus maker Trend Micro.
The security firm said at the start of the year, it had found more than 5,000 malicious applications designed to target Google's Android mobile operating system, but the figure has since risen to about 20,000 in recent months.
A group of researchers from North Carolina State University have managed to create a proof-of-concept rootkit for the Android OS that is able to hijack the clicks made by the phone owners and use them to launch malicious applications without the users being aware of it.
Led by Assistant Professor Xuxian Jiang, the group was initially concentrated of finding security weaknesses in various smartphone platforms, but proceeded to create the rootkit in order to discover how Android developers could defend users against this type of attack.
Where did this come from? A new game console that's not built by Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft? You read that right. A new game console is entering the ring. Meet the Ouya.
What exactly is Ouya? Scooped up by The Verge, Ouya is a console that connects to a TV and comes with a dev kit that is "built to be hacked."
"Any developer will be able to publish games, claims the listing, and all games will be free to play."
A research team at North Carolina State University led by Professor Xuxian Jiang recently announced that a security flaw in Android Version 4.0.4 and below could exploited by a rootkit with relative ease, according to an official university research blog post.
Like most Android malware, the rootkit can be distributed as a malicious app, opening up a host of potential vulnerabilities on any device on which it is installed. However, it functions in a different way.
We announced last November that we are focusing our work with Flash on PC browsing and mobile apps packaged with Adobe AIR, and will be discontinuing our development of the Flash Player for mobile browsers.
