Security News
Microsoft has released its first preview build of the Windows Subsystem for Android, allowing you to run Android apps directly on your desktop. Like the Windows Subsystem for Linux, the Windows Subsystem for Android allows you to run native Android apps in a virtualized environment with sound, graphics, and network connectivity.
An in-depth analysis of a range of popular Android mobile phones has revealed significant data collection and sharing, including with third parties, with no opt-out available to users. Prof. Doug Leith at Trinity College Dublin along with Dr Paul Patras and Haoyu Liu at the University of Edinburgh examined the data sent by six variants of the Android OS developed by Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Realme, LineageOS and /e/OS. Vendor-customized Android variants share substantial amounts of data to third parties.
WhatsApp is rolling out end-to-end encrypted chat backups on iOS and Android to prevent anyone from accessing your chats, regardless of where they are stored. Currently, WhatsApp allows you to create backups of all your chats and store them on online storage services.
A new study by a team of university researchers in the UK has unveiled a host of privacy issues that arise from using Android smartphones. The researchers have focused on Samsung, Xiaomi, Realme, and Huawei Android devices, and LineageOS and /e/OS, two forks of Android that aim to offer long-term support and a de-Googled experience.
An Android app sitting on the Google Play store touts itself to be a photo editor app. Like many Android apps, the "Blender Photo Editor-Easy Photo Background Editor" app comes with the sign-in with Facebook functionality.
Jack Wallen dispenses his bi-annual advice to Android users on how to avoid falling prey to malicious apps and bad actors. Malicious actors count on users not bothering to do even the slightest bit of research or consider the consequences of randomly installing apps.
Google has released the Android October security updates, addressing 41 vulnerabilities, all ranging between high and critical severity. On the 5th of each month, Google releases the complete security patch for the Android OS which contains both the framework and the vendor fixes for that month.
The Flubot banking trojan is using a fake security warning to try to trick Android users into thinking that they've already been infected with Flubot. It's a lie, but it will become a reality if recipients of the text message fall for it and click on the "Install security update" button.
The Flubot malware has switched to a new and likely more effective lure to compromise Android devices, now trying to trick its victims into infecting themselves with the help of fake security updates warning them of Flubot infections. "Your device is infected with the FluBot® malware. Android has detected that your device has been infected," the new Flubot installation page says.
Mobile security firm Zimperium, which first identified the GriftHorse Android Trojan, says the malware has infected more than 10 million Android devices worldwide; a fraction of one per cent of active 'droid devices, but still misery for literally millions of people. In a blog post on Wednesday, Zimperium researchers Aazim Yaswant and Nipun Gupta said that Trojan code dubbed GriftHorse has been spotted in more than 200 malicious apps in at least 70 different countries and has been afflicting Android phones since November 2020.