Tag Archives: android

Unconfirmed hack of Liz Truss’ phone prompts calls for “urgent investigation”

Enlarge / Liz Truss, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury, taking a picture on her phone on May 1, 2018, in London. Getty Images reader comments 79 with 56 posters participating Share this story British opposition politicians are calling for an “urgent investigation” into an unconfirmed media report that spies suspected of working for Russia… Read More »

Google closes data loophole amid privacy fears over abortion ruling

Enlarge (credit: Lari Bat | Getty Images) Google is closing a loophole that has allowed thousands of companies to monitor and sell sensitive personal data from Android smartphones, an effort welcomed by privacy campaigners in the wake of the US Supreme Court’s decision to end women’s constitutional right to abortion. It also took a further… Read More »

Billing fraud apps can disable Android Wi-Fi and intercept text messages

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson) Android malware developers are stepping up their billing fraud game with apps that disable Wi-Fi connections, surreptitiously subscribe users to pricey wireless services, and intercept text messages, all in a bid to collect hefty fees from unsuspecting users, Microsoft said on Friday. This threat class has been a fact of life… Read More »

Critical bug could have let hackers commandeer millions of Android devices

Getty Images reader comments 31 with 24 posters participating Share this story Security researchers said they uncovered a vulnerability that could have allowed hackers to commandeer millions of Android devices equipped with mobile chipsets made by Qualcomm and MediaTek. The vulnerability resided in ALAC—short for Apple Lossless Audio Codec and also known as Apple Lossless—which… Read More »

Data-harvesting code in mobile apps sends user data to “Russia’s Google”

Kirill Kudryavtsev | Getty Images reader comments 70 with 44 posters participating Share this story Russia’s biggest Internet company has embedded code into apps found on mobile devices that allows information about millions of users to be sent to servers located in its home country. The revelation relates to software created by Yandex that permits… Read More »

Researcher uses Dirty Pipe exploit to fully root a Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung S22

reader comments 24 with 21 posters participating Share this story A researcher has successfully used the critical Dirty Pipe vulnerability in Linux to fully root two models of Android phones—a Pixel 6 Pro and Samsung S22—in a hack that demonstrates the power of exploiting the newly discovered OS flaw. The researcher chose those two handset… Read More »

Android malware can factory reset phones after draining bank accounts

Getty Images reader comments 1 with 1 posters participating Share this story A banking-fraud trojan that has been targeting Android users for three years has been updated to create even more grief: besides draining bank accounts, the trojan can now activate a kill switch that performs a factory reset and wipes infected devices clean. Brata… Read More »

Google Play app with 500,000 downloads sent user contacts to Russian server

reader comments 61 with 43 posters participating, including story author Share this story An Android app with more than 500,000 downloads from Google Play has been caught hosting malware that surreptitiously sends users’ contacts to an attacker-controlled server and signs up users to pricey subscriptions, a security firm reported. The app, named Color Message, was… Read More »