Category Archives: App Security

Hackers use fake contact tracing apps in attempt to install banking malware on Android phones

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Twelve applications posing as coronavirus contact tracing apps available outside mainstream marketplaces are designed to steal personal and financial information from unwitting Android users. Apps meant to impersonate official government tracing apps from countries including Italy, Russia and Singapore trigger malicious software capable of collecting a range of data from user’s devices, the threat intelligence firm Anomali found in research shared with CyberScoop prior to its publication. It’s the latest example of hackers and scammers exploiting global events to try stealing from anxious smartphone users who, in this case, would have believed they were downloading an app designed to measure the prevalence of COVID-19 in their community. None of the apps were included in the Google Play Store at press time. Anomali determined that apps were available on suspicious websites and in third-party app markets. Researchers were unable to determine how many people downloaded the suspicious apps, and the distinct […]

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Introducing Cloud App Isolation

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Manage Shadow IT and Stop Data Loss Through Cloud Apps
Cloud Apps Are a Point of Attack
Protecting workers is a challenging task—for example, 29 percent of all attacks leverage legitimate cloud services to launch an attack. Once an attacker… Continue reading Introducing Cloud App Isolation→

Zoom founder promises to remedy security, privacy concerns during a ‘feature freeze’

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Zoom’s founder says the company behind the popular videoconferencing app will spend the next 90 days focused on fixing security issues. In a blog post Thursday, Zoom founder Eric S. Yuan said the technology firm is enacting a “feature freeze,” in which employees will turn their attention from enhancing usability toward tightening data protection. The announcement comes as the number of daily Zoom users has skyrocketed to 200 million users in March, up from 10 million in December, as much of the world’s workforce moves to remote work amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The update from the San Jose-based company comes after the FBI issued a public warning about “Zoombombing,” in which white supremacists and other unauthorized outsiders have hijacked teleconferences. In some cases, internet trolls have disrupted online classes to shout profanities at teachers. Zoom also was hit with a class-action lawsuit in which users claimed the company was sharing […]

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Scammers tried using kids apps in the Google Play store to generate cash

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Fifty-six apps in Google’s Play store included malicious software that leveraged victims’ devices to click on mobile advertisements, artificially inflating the traffic to those ads and helping scammers make money. Research published Tuesday by the security firm Check Point Technologies details how fraudsters used the network of apps, which were downloaded more than 1 million times, to exploit users’ trust and make a buck. Unlike so many other ad fraud efforts, this campaign was tailored toward children, with 24 of the 56 apps marketed towards kids. Entertainment apps and games with titles like “Cooking Delicious” and “Let Me Go,” a puzzle app, tempted kids into downloading, and then launched the malicious tool. The apps included “Tekya,” a so-called clicker malware that clicked banners and other ads from a variety of sources. Along with kids’ apps, Tekya also came embedded in cooking, calculator, translation and other utility apps. Google removed all […]

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One private equity firm sells Checkmarx to another for $1 billion

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The application security company Checkmarx is changing ownership again. The private equity firm Insight Partners said on Monday it will sell Checkmarx to Hellman & Friedman, another private equity company, at a valuation of $1.15 billion. Intsight has owned Checkmarx since June 2015, when investors injected $84 million into the Israeli company. Intsight will retain a significant minority stake in Checkmarx under the terms of the deal. “As cybersecurity threats continue to intensify, we strongly believe that embedding security early in the software development lifecycle is critical,” Tarim Wasim, a partner at Hellman & Friedman, said in a statement. “We look forward to building on Checkmarx’s tremendous success to date and supporting the company’s rapid growth in the years ahead.” Founded in 2006, Checkmarx says it mitigates enterprise security risk by helping developers find vulnerabilities, then fix them. The company is perhaps best known for discovering a number of bugs […]

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A coronavirus-tracking app locked users’ phones and demanded $100

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You can always count on hackers to exploit a terrible situation to try to make a buck. A new Android app that promises to deliver up-to-date figures on the coronavirus pandemic includes a strain of malicious software that locks up a user’s phone and demands an extortion fee. The ransomware app, called CovidLock, threatens to erase everything on an infected phone if victims don’t pay $100 in bitcoin within 48 hours, according to the security firm DomainTools. The number of users affected remains unclear. The app is not available in the Google Play store, and was accessible on a standalone website. DomainTools has said it intends to release a decryption tool for affected victims, while Reddit users claim to already have deciphered the password to release locked data. The program only represents scammers’ latest attempt to use concerns around the COVID-19 virus to defraud anxious technology users. Scams, misinformation campaigns, attempted hacks […]

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When Stalkerware Stalks the Enterprise

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Stalkerware is a real problem that can lead to individuals being tracked and stalked via software on their smartphones. It’s also a growing and underappreciated threat to enterprises.

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FBI assesses Russian apps may be counterintelligence threat

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All mobile apps developed by Russian entities may be counterintelligence threats to the United States, the FBI has assessed in a letter sent to the Senate’s minority leader. “The FBI considers any mobile application or similar product developed in Russia … to be a potential counterintelligence threat, based on the data the product collects, its privacy and terms of use policies, and the legal mechanisms available to the Government of Russia that permit access to data within Russia’s borders,” Jill Tyson, the assistant director for the FBI’s office of congressional affairs, wrote in a letter to Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, that CyberScoop obtained. The bureau’s concerns about Russian counterintelligence operations come in response to an inquiry Schumer sent to the FBI this summer about whether Americans’ data on FaceApp was being provided to the Kremlin. The FBI has assessed that the Russian photo-aging app, which became a viral sensation earlier this […]

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The Role of Evil Downloaders in the Android Mobile Malware Kill Chain

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Malware on official mobile app stores is a growing concern for all users. Increasingly, malware developers are getting around sophisticated app store controls by using mobile malware downloaders.

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