Security News
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered malicious Android apps for Signal and Telegram distributed via the Google Play Store and Samsung Galaxy Store that are engineered to deliver the BadBazaar spyware on infected devices. Slovakian company ESET attributed the campaign to a China-linked actor called GREF. "Most likely active since July 2020 and since July 2022, respectively, the campaigns have distributed the Android BadBazaar espionage code through the Google Play store, Samsung Galaxy Store, and dedicated websites representing the malicious apps Signal Plus Messenger and FlyGram," security researcher Lukáš Štefanko said in a new report shared with The Hacker News.
Hackers are using a fake Android app named 'SafeChat' to infect devices with spyware malware that steals call logs, texts, and GPS locations from phones. The Android spyware is suspected to be a variant of "Coverlm," which steals data from communication apps such as Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, Viber, and Facebook Messenger.
WhatsApp uses the Signal encryption protocol to provide encryption for its messages. WhatsApp does not protect metadata the way that Signal does.
In a bid to prioritize security and privacy, Signal has announced that it will soon phase out SMS and MMS messaging support on Android. Signal now thinks it has reached the point where SMS support for Android users will be expunged to allow them to focus on security and privacy offerings on the Signal platform.
"We have now reached the point where SMS support no longer makes sense. In order to enable a more streamlined Signal experience, we are starting to phase out SMS support from the Android app," the company said in a blog post published today. Signal will start notifying them to export their SMS messages and switch to a new default app to manage their SMS messages.
Signal is urging its global community to help people in Iran stay connected with each other and the rest of the world by volunteering proxies to bypass the aggressive restrictions imposed by the Iranian regime. On Monday, the Iranian regime severely restricted internet connectivity in the country, imposing broad blocks on all ISPs, sometimes leaving internet users entirely offline for several hours.
Apple strengthens security and privacy in iOS 16Apple announced additional security and privacy updates for its newest mobile operating system. Government guide for supply chain security: The good, the bad and the uglyJust as developers and security teams were getting ready to take a breather and fire up the BBQ for the holiday weekend, the U.S.'s most prestigious security agencies dropped a 60+ page recommended practice guide, Securing the Software Supply Chain for Developers.
PQShield published a white paper that lays out the quantum threat to secure end-to-end messaging and explains how post-quantum cryptography can be added to the Signal secure messaging protocol to protect it from quantum attacks. The company is offering to license its end-to-end encrypted messaging IP to the Signal Foundation pro bono - if/when they plan to upgrade their system - to support the non-profit behind the free encrypted messaging app, Signal, in its mission to make secure communication accessible to everyone.
A security researcher who has a long line of work demonstrating novel data exfiltration methods from air-gapped systems has come up with yet another technique that involves sending Morse code signals via LEDs on network interface cards. "Information can be encoded via simple encoding such as Morse code and modulated over these optical signals. An attacker can intercept and decode these signals from tens to hundreds of meters away."
All users can rest assured that their message history, contact lists, profile information, whom they'd blocked, and other personal data remain private and secure and were not affected. For about 1,900 users, an attacker could have attempted to re-register their number to another device or learned that their number was registered to Signal.