Towards Scalable and Interpretable Mobile App Risk Analysis Via Large Language Models

Mobile application marketplaces are responsible for vetting apps to identify and mitigate security risks. Current vetting processes are labor-intensive, relying on manual analysis by security professionals aided by semi-automated tools. To address this inefficiency, we propose Mars, a system that...

Page's CEO Letter Gives Short Shrift To Privacy, Security

Privacy and security are not the top concerns for Google’s Larry Page, at least if the CEO’s most recent message to investors is any indication. The 3,500 word letter makes scant mention of either security or user privacy and gives the public little indication of Google’s plans to address the...

Facebook 'Like' Scam Driven by Malicious Chrome Extension

A Kaspersky Lab researcher has discovered a Brazilian social engineering campaign that attempts to trick Facebook users into installing a malicious plug-in hosted on Google’s Chrome Web Store. The Facebook scam-page solicits victims by promising to teach them how to “remove the virus from their...

Apple, Google Need Mobile Security Rethink

Threatpost interviews Mickey Boodaei, the CEO of Trusteer, about the state of mobile device security. Mobile security issues have been getting more press recently – on Threatpost and elsewhere. Partially, this is because they’re new, and because mobile devices are proliferating both at home and i...

Google: Spyware Found, Removed from Android Market

Google says it has suspended a number of suspicious applications from the Android Market after researchers at NC State announced they had discovered a new and particularly stealthy piece of spyware, dubbed “Plankton,” lurking in Android applications there. According to a report by computer scienc...

Android App Makers Should be Held Accountable

Google’s response to the recent discovery of malicious apps in the Android market place is proof that we’re now entering a new phase in malware mitigation. Can you imagine Microsoft automatically pushing an executable to part of its user-base with no opt-out option? This essay is not about the...

Researcher Publishes Android Browser Exploit

UPDATE: A researcher at security firm Alert Logic has published code that could be used to compromise some versions of Google’s Android Operating System. The exploit, if properly adapted, could make Android phones vulnerable to remote attacks and compromises. Researcher MJ Keith published a Rever...