Security News

Google has officially begun its rollout of Privacy Sandbox in the Chrome web browser to a majority of its users, nearly four months after it announced the plans. "We believe it is vital to both improve privacy and preserve access to information, whether it's news, a how-to-guide, or a fun video," Anthony Chavez, vice president of Privacy Sandbox initiatives at Google, said.

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At the time the researchers published their report, several malicious apps were still available for download through Google Play. The Telegram apps presented in Kaspersky's report are promoted as "Faster" alternatives to the regular app.

Google has started to roll out its new interest-based advertising platform called the Privacy Sandbox, shifting the tracking of user's interests from third-party cookies to the Chrome browser. While Google states that the Privacy Sandbox is designed to increase privacy by letting your web browser compute your interests locally rather than through cookies, Apple, Mozilla, and the WC3 TAG have cited numerous issues with the proposal.

Spyware masquerading as modified versions of Telegram have been spotted in the Google Play Store that's designed to harvest sensitive information from compromised Android devices. The apps have been collectively downloaded millions of times before they were taken down by Google.

Google announced today that it is deprecating the standard Google Chrome Safe Browsing feature and moving everyone to its Enhanced Safe Browsing feature in the coming weeks, bringing real-time phishing protection to all users while browsing the web. Since 2007, Google Chrome has utilized a Safe Browsing security feature that protects users from malicious websites that push malware or display phishing pages.

Cybercriminals are abusing Google Looker Studio to create counterfeit cryptocurrency phishing websites that phish digital asset holders, leading to account takeovers and financial losses. Check Point researchers have discovered that hackers are exploiting the trusted service of Google Looker Studio to craft cryptocurrency phishing pages.

Google's Threat Analysis Group says North Korean state hackers are again targeting security researchers in attacks using at least one zero-day in an undisclosed popular software. Researchers attacked in this campaign are involved in vulnerability research and development, according to Google's team of security experts that protects the company's users from state-sponsored attacks.

The Chaes malware has returned as a new, more advanced variant that includes a custom implementation of the Google DevTools protocol for direct access to the victim's browser functions, allowing it to steal data using WebSockets. A new feature that stands out is Chaes' use of the Chrome DevTools Protocol to steal data from the web browser, including the real-time modification of web pages, execution of JavaScript code, debugging, network request management, memory management, cookie and cache management, and more.

ESET researchers have identified two active campaigns targeting Android users, where the threat actors behind the tools for Telegram and Signal are attributed to the China-aligned APT group GREF. Most likely active since July 2020 and since July 2022, respectively for each malicious app, the campaigns have distributed the Android BadBazaar espionage code through the Google Play store, Samsung Galaxy Store, and dedicated websites posing as legitimate encrypted chat applications - the malicious apps are FlyGram and Signal Plus Messenger. Threat actors exploit fake Signal and Telegram apps.