Android

ComputerWorldIndependent

How to stay smart about Android app permissions

Credit to Author: JR Raphael| Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0700

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ComputerWorldIndependent

Drop, crack, d'oh! My broken Android phone epiphany

Credit to Author: JR Raphael| Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2022 03:00:00 -0700

Man, I had one hell of a streak.

All these years — approximately 7,967 since I first started using and writing about Android — and somehow, rather miraculously, I’d never outright broken a phone.

Impressive, I know. But don’t let yourself get wrapped in awe yet, my fellow drop-dreading denizen: My streak of impeccable Android phone protection has officially come to a crashing halt.

Now, I didn’t technically drop my phone, mind you. And I didn’t technically break it myself, either. But it was definitely broken. And it happened on my watch.

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MicrosoftSecurity

Toll fraud malware: How an Android application can drain your wallet

Credit to Author: Microsoft 365 Defender Threat Intelligence Team| Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2022 14:00:00 +0000

Toll fraud malware, a subcategory of billing fraud in which malicious applications subscribe users to premium services without their knowledge or consent, is one of the most prevalent types of Android malware – and it continues to evolve.

The post Toll fraud malware: How an Android application can drain your wallet appeared first on Microsoft Security Blog.

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ComputerWorldIndependent

The surveillance-as-a-service industry needs to be brought to heel

Credit to Author: Jonny Evans| Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2022 09:40:00 -0700

Here we go again: another example of government surveillance involving smartphones from Apple and Google has emerged, and it shows how sophisticated government-backed attacks can become and why there’s justification for keeping mobile platforms utterly locked down.

What has happened?

I don’t intend to focus too much on the news, but in brief it is as follows:

  • Google’s Threat Analysis Group has published information revealing the hack.
  • Italian surveillance firm RCS Labs created the attack.
  • The attack has been used in Italy and Kazakhstan, and possibly elsewhere.
  • Some generations of the attack are wielded with help from ISPs.
  • On iOS, attackers abused Apple’s enterprise certification tools that enable in-house app deployment.
  • Around nine different attacks were used.

The attack works like this: The target is sent a unique link that aims to trick them into downloading and installing a malicious app. In some cases, the spooks worked with an ISP to disable data connectivity to trick targets into downloading the app to recover that connection.

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