I recently encountered a botnet targeting Android smartphone users who bank at financial institutions in the Middle East. The crude yet remarkably effective mobile bot that powers this whole operation comes disguised as one of several online banking apps, has infected more than 2,700 phones, and has intercepted at least 28,000 text messages.
On Monday, American prosecutors announced that two of the four men involved with two Android piracy sites, snappzmarket.com and appbucket.net, have pleaded guilty to copyright infringement. The case marks the first time that US authorities have successfully prosecuted a case involving pirate app stores.
The FBI shut down the sites listed above in August 2012 and filed charges against the quartet of men in January 2014.
The US Department of Justice has broken new ground when it comes to prosecuting counterfeit mobile app distributors. For the first time, the government has convicted two men for illegally selling copies of copyrighted apps.
The Justice Department announced on Monday that Florida residents Nicholas Anthony Narbone, 26, and Thomas Allen Dye, 21, each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement.
Developers working on Replicant OS, a free and open-source spin of Google's Android operating system, have claimed to uncover a backdoor into the device's file-system for several Samsung Galaxy mobile devices using the stock Android image.
Replicant developers found a back-door to be present in "most proprietary Android systems running on the affected Samsung Galaxy devices, including the ones that are shipped with the devices."
The new "Blackphone" smartphone may have only debuted at last week's Mobile World Congress but concerns are already being raised that it will be targeted by hackers and the NSA.
Spanish start-up Geeksphone, Silent Circle and Pretty Good Privacy announced the Blackphone at the technology exhibition in Barcelona last week, with STMicro later demonstrating its own security-focused smartphone, the Boeing Black.
The inevitable happened. Google apps got installed on the freshly announced Nokia X after a crafty member of XDA Developers rooted the Android handset.
The root was achieved via the Framaroot app. The bootloader of the device is unsurprisingly locked, so instead of flashing a single zip file, users need to copy the apk files for Google apps via a root explorer application.
Until now, Google hasn’t talked about malware on Android because it did not have the data or analytic platform to back its security claims. But that changed dramatically today when Google’s Android Security chief Adrian Ludwig reported data showing that less than an estimated 0.001% of app installations on Android are able to evade the system’s multi-layered defenses and cause harm to users. Android, built on an open innovation model, has quietly resisted the locked down, total control model spawned by decades of Windows malware.
According to the conventional wisdom, Nokia’s decision to launch the new Nokia X line is a slap in the face to Microsoft. An insult, an embarrassment, a major headache that Microsoft management will have to confront soon, when the acquisition of Nokia closes.
That conventional wisdom, frankly, makes no sense to me.
Microsoft reportedly is 'seriously considering' allowing Android apps to run on its Windows and Windows Phone operating systems.
That's according to The Verge, which has heard from sources familiar with Microsoft's plans that the company is mulling the prospect of bringing Android apps to both Windows and Windows Phone in order to win over new customers.
An annual report assessing the vulnerability and threat landscape for organizations, zeroed in on encryption issues that often plague mobile applications.
According to HP's Cyber Risk Report 2013, 46 percent of Android and iOS apps used encryption improperly, leaving users' data vulnerable to theft or misuse.
