News in the Mobile category

PixPirate Android malware uses new tactic to hide on phones

The latest version of the PixPirate banking trojan for Android employs a previously unseen method to hide from the victim while remaining active on the infected device even if its dropper app has been removed.
- Bill Toulas
- March 13, 2024
- 02:13 PM
- 1
U.S. sanctions Predator spyware operators for spying on Americans

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on two individuals and five entities linked to the development and distribution of the Predator commercial spyware used to target Americans, including government officials and journalists.
- Bill Toulas
- March 05, 2024
- 01:09 PM
- 0
Brave browser launches privacy-focused AI assistant on Android

Brave Software is the next company to jump into AI, announcing a new privacy-preserving AI assistant called "Leo" is rolling out on the Android version of its browser through the latest release, version 1.63.
- Bill Toulas
- February 29, 2024
- 03:42 PM
- 0
Google Pay app shutting down in US, users have till June to move funds

Google is retiring the standalone Pay app in the United States. Users have until June 4 to transfer the balance to bank accounts.
- Bill Toulas
- February 23, 2024
- 01:46 PM
- 7
Massive AT&T outage impacts US mobile subscribers

Tens of thousands of U.S. customers from Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T have been complaining about lack of wireless service or interruptions on Thursday morning.
- Ionut Ilascu
- February 22, 2024
- 10:48 AM
- 6
VoltSchemer attacks use wireless chargers to inject voice commands, fry phones

A team of academic researchers show that a new set of attacks called 'VoltSchemer' can inject voice commands to manipulate a smartphone's voice assistant through the magnetic field emitted by an off-the-shelf wireless charger.
- Bill Toulas
- February 20, 2024
- 03:38 PM
- 3
Anatsa Android malware downloaded 150,000 times via Google Play

The Anatsa banking trojan has been targeting users in Europe by infecting Android devices through malware droppers hosted on Google Play.
- Bill Toulas
- February 19, 2024
- 08:34 AM
- 1
New ‘Gold Pickaxe’ Android, iOS malware steals your face for fraud

A new iOS and Android trojan named 'GoldPickaxe' employs a social engineering scheme to trick victims into scanning their faces and ID documents, which are believed to be used to generate deepfakes for unauthorized banking access.
- Bill Toulas
- February 15, 2024
- 03:00 AM
- 2
Android XLoader malware can now auto-execute after installation

A new version of the XLoader Android malware was discovered that automatically executes on devices it infects, requiring no user interaction to launch.
- Bill Toulas
- February 08, 2024
- 01:34 PM
- 0
Google tests blocking side-loaded Android apps with risky permissions

Google has launched a new pilot program to fight financial fraud by blocking the sideloading of Android APK files that request access to risky permissions.
- Bill Toulas
- February 07, 2024
- 01:57 PM
- 4
Google says spyware vendors behind most zero-days it discovers

Commercial spyware vendors (CSV) were behind 80% of the zero-day vulnerabilities Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) discovered in 2023 and used to spy on devices worldwide.
- Bill Toulas
- February 06, 2024
- 12:27 PM
- 4
More Android apps riddled with malware spotted on Google Play

An Android remote access trojan (RAT) known as VajraSpy was found in 12 malicious applications, six of which were available on Google Play from April 1, 2021, through September 10, 2023.
- Bill Toulas
- February 01, 2024
- 01:19 PM
- 1
Google shares fix for Pixel phones hit by bad system update

Google has shared a temporary fix for owners of Google Pixel devices that were rendered unusable after installing the January 2024 Google Play system update.
- Bill Toulas
- February 01, 2024
- 11:05 AM
- 3
Exploit released for Android local elevation flaw impacting 7 OEMs

A proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit for a local privilege elevation flaw impacting at least seven Android original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) is now publicly available on GitHub. However, as the exploit requires local access, its release will mostly be helpful to researchers.
- Bill Toulas
- January 31, 2024
- 02:15 PM
- 2
iPhone apps abuse iOS push notifications to collect user data

Numerous iOS apps are using background processes triggered by push notifications to collect user data about devices, potentially allowing the creation of fingerprinting profiles used for tracking.
- Bill Toulas
- January 25, 2024
- 01:28 PM
- 0
Google Pixel phones unusable after January 2024 system update

Google Pixel smartphone owners report problems after installing the January 2024 Google Play system update, being unable to access their devices internal storage, open the camera, take screenshots, or even open apps.
- Bill Toulas
- January 24, 2024
- 10:13 AM
- 18
GrapheneOS: Frequent Android auto-reboots block firmware exploits

GrapheneOS, a privacy and security-focused Android-based operating system, has posted a series of tweets on X suggesting that Android should introduce frequent auto-reboots to make it harder for forensic software vendors to exploit firmware flaws and spy on the users.
- Bill Toulas
- January 14, 2024
- 10:32 AM
- 3
Google Search bug shows blank page in Firefox for Android

Users of the Firefox browser for Android have been reporting that they are seeing a blank page when trying to load the main Google Search site.
- Bill Toulas
- January 09, 2024
- 09:48 AM
- 2
New Xamalicious Android malware installed 330k times on Google Play

A previously unknown Android backdoor named 'Xamalicious' has infected approximately 338,300 devices via malicious apps on Google Play, Android's official app store.
- Bill Toulas
- December 27, 2023
- 10:54 AM
- 0
iPhone Triangulation attack abused undocumented hardware feature

The Operation Triangulation spyware attacks targeting iPhone devices since 2019 leveraged undocumented features in Apple chips to bypass hardware-based security protections.
- Bill Toulas
- December 27, 2023
- 09:14 AM
- 1