Category Archives: Shanghai Adups Technology Company

Chinese ad platform secretly stole phone data from Android devices

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A popular Chinese advertising software development kit, used on over 500 Google Play apps with millions of downloads each, spied on unsuspecting users and developers and secretly took data including GPS data, device identifiers and call logs. Investigating suspicious traffic during a review of apps that communicate with IPs and servers that have a history of serving malware, researchers from mobile security company Lookout saw an app downloading large, encrypted files after requests to an endpoint used by the Igexin ad software development kit, behavior typical of malware acting after a temporarily clean app installation. “It is becoming increasingly common for innovative malware authors to attempt to evade detection by submitting innocuous apps to trusted app stores, then at a later time, downloading malicious code from a remote server,” the researchers wrote. “Igexin is somewhat unique because the app developers themselves are not creating the malicious functionality – nor are they […]

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Chinese tech firm disputes report it siphons smartphone data after Amazon suspends sales

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Chinese tech firm Adups and American phone manufacturer Blu are disputing reports of privacy and security problems plaguing their products after Amazon temporarily suspended the sale of Blu phones, which are some of the most popular on the retail site. In response, the American cybersecurity company that claimed Adups was quietly siphoning heaps of data from mobile phones issued a statement Wednesday sticking to its story. “We stand by our findings because we have clear forensic evidence, both in terms of code and in terms of network traces, to support them,” Kryptowire, the cybersecurity company, said in a press release. CyberScoop reported on Kryptowire’s findings on July 25. Adups initially did not respond to requests for comment, but reached out two days later, calling the article “malicious slander” and asking “to stop refrain from reporting, and withdraw the article.” An Adups representative claimed third-party testers — including Kryptowire — had verified that the security and privacy issues had been solved. […]

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Chinese tech firm continues to secretly siphon data from Android phones

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Despite being caught a year ago, Android phones around the world are secretly sending sensitive user data to an opaque Chinese tech company whose software is found in millions of cheap phones used widely by lower-income customers in the developing world, Europe and the United States. Despite the controversy stirred by the original report — which prompted reactions everywhere from Google to the Department of Homeland Security — the Chinese firm continues to secretly siphon off user data without disclosure or consent, according to the latest round of research from the Virginia-based cybersecurity company Kryptowire. The new report comes nearly a year after Kryptowire researcher Ryan Johnson showed that more than 700 million Android smartphones, including some in the United States, carried the Chinese-authored software. Users are tracked by their movements and communications; the software tracks call logs, text messages, contact lists, GPS location and other data. The spyware has been selectively scaled back since it was originally […]

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