Google Bans 158,000 Malicious Android App Developer Accounts in 2024

Google said it blocked over 2.36 million policy-violating Android apps from being published to the Google Play app marketplace in 2024 and banned more than 158,000 bad developer accounts that attempted to publish such harmful apps. The tech giant also noted it prevented 1.3 million apps from...

New Privacy Framework for IoT Devices Gives Users Control Over Data Sharing

A newly designed privacy-sensitive architecture aims to enable developers to create smart home apps in a manner that addresses data sharing concerns and puts users in control over their personal information. Dubbed Peekaboo by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, the system "leverages an...

Malicious Barcode Scanner App

Interesting story about a barcode scanner app that has been pushing malware on to Android phones. The app is called Barcode Scanner. Its been around since 2017 and is owned by the Ukrainian company Lavabird Ldt. But a December 2020 update included some new features: However, a rash of malicious...

Popular Android apps on Play Store caught defrauding users

By Waqas A well-known Chinese app developer Cheetah Mobile and one of its subsidiaries Kika Tech might have claimed credit for millions of dollars from advertisers through an Android fraud scheme, reveals app analytics firm Kochava. It is a common practice for mobile app developers to generate...

Malicious App Infects 60,000 Android Devices – But Still Saves Their Batteries

UPDATE A battery-saving app that also allows attackers to snatch text messages and read sensitive log data has been downloaded by more than 60,000 Android devices so far. But what’s unique about the attack, according to the researchers at RiskIQ who discovered it, is that it holds true to its...

Google and Apple app Store removing all Games with "Flappy" word in Title

After the developer of Flappy Bird pulled the gaming app from both the Apple and Google app stores, it led to the creation of dozens and dozens of Flappy Bird clones that are trying to cash in on the popularity of the original title. Also Security researchers from multiple anti-malware firms have...

URL Redirection flaw in Facebook apps push OAuth vulnerability again in action

In earlier posts, our Facebook hacker 'Nir Goldshlager' exposed two serious Facebook oAuth Flaws. One, Hacking a Facebook account even without the user installing an application on their account and second, various ways to bypassing the regex protection in Facebook OAuth. This time, Nir illustrat...

Deceptive In-App Ads Hit Users of Draw Something

I really like the new app by OMGPOP called Draw Something. I play this game with my friends possibly a little too much. Draw Something has attracted more than 50 million downloads, and was just acquired by Zynga for $200 million dollars. It was surprising the other day when I noticed an...