Google has removed an Android app from the Play Store after security researchers from Symantec noticed the application was secretly scanning and stealing personal photos and videos from users' devices.
The app is HTML Source Code Viewer, and it was developed by a developer named Sunuba Gaming. At the time Google removed it, the application had between 1,000 and 5,000 installs. The app's moniker is self-explanatory, and it allowed users to view the source code of a Web page. Users only had to enter a URL, and the application retrieved that site's source code and printed it on the screen. According to Symantec, the app did a little more than that.
Read moreGamers who have downloaded the Pokémon Go augmented reality game were given a scare on Monday, after noticing that the app had apparently been granted “full access” to their Google accounts.
Taken at face value, the permissions would have represented a major security vulnerability, albeit one that only appeared to affect players who signed up to play the game using their Google account on Apple devices. The discovery sparked a wave of fear that playing the game might allow its developers, Niantic Labs, to read and send email, access, edit and delete documents in Google Drive and Google Photos, and access browser and maps histories.
Read moreSundar Pichai isn’t going to have a happy start to his week. The CEO of Google’s Quora account appears to have been hacked by a group called OurMine, which previously broke into Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter and Pinterest accounts earlier this month.
The three-man hacker outfit has been posting messages on Quora through Pichai’s account; it’s also connected to his Twitter account and as a result, OurMine was able to publicize their hack to all 508,000 of his followers. The tweets have now been removed, but experts have got a screenshot. OurMine has been targeting major tech execs of late, including Spotify’s Daniel Ek.
Read moreSecurity researchers have discovered a malicious Android trojan codenamed Android/Trojan.Pawost that's packed inside a stopwatch app but uses Google Talk to initiate phone calls to unregistered numbers.
Pawost begins its malicious behavior after users install it. As soon as this happens, the app shows a Google Talk icon in the smartphone's notifications area. There's no text with this icon, and the notification is a dead giveaway that something is wrong and you should uninstall the app as soon as possible. A few minutes later, the app will start making calls to several unknown numbers, using the Google Talk application.
Read moreThere's a new trick going around that can fool some people into divulging their two-factor authentication code to crooks, while thinking they're actually protecting their accounts.
Two-factor authentication is a second layer of authentication that many online services support. 2FA works by requiring a user to enter a code that they received via SMS on their phone after they logged into a 2FA-protected account. If the user doesn't enter the code promptly, the login is classified as a hacking attempt, and the user blocked from accessing the account, even if they entered the correct password. You can see the benefits, right?
Read moreA recent story suggested that Google is secretly recording your conversations and discussions. Although the story does have merit, it also has some problems. Google is recording voices; that’s entirely true. However, it does so for voice recognition only — and Apple does the same.
Both record voice search history to help their apps (OK Google and Siri) better understand voice. Another point to note is that Google records only on Android devices, not Apple products. On the other hand, Google operates around the globe, with the exception of a few countries, and it’s not hard to see how something like this could be used for ill gain.
Read moreGoogle will begin testing an alternative to passwords next month, in a move that could do away with complicated logins for good.
The new feature is called the Trust API, and will initially be tested with “several very large financial institutions” in June. Kaufman is the head of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects group, where the Trust API was first created under the codename Project Abacus. Introduced last year, Abacus aims to kill passwords not through one super-secure replacement, but by mixing together multiple weaker indicators into one solid piece of evidence that you are who you say you are.
Read moreLegal action against Google by four UC Berkeley students has ballooned into two lawsuits by US college students and alumni alleging the firm harvested their data for commercial gain without their consent.
But the students' claims may be derailed by a dispute over whether they should file their cases individually, rather than as a group. On April 29, another 180 filed a separate lawsuit making the same claim: that Google's Apps for Education, which provided them with official university email accounts to use for school and personal communication, allowed Google until April 2014 to scan their emails without their consent for advertising purposes.
Read moreFive apps on Google Play carry Viking Horde, a new malware family that ropes Android devices into an ad-clicking botnet, but can also make them send out spam, send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers, download additional apps, and even participate in DDoS attacks.
The discovery was made by Check Point researchers, and they have notified Google about it on May 5, but as I’m writing this, the apps are still available on Android’s official app store. The most popular of these is Viking Jump, which was installed by at least 50,000 users, despite the poor ratings and reviews that point to its questionable nature.
Read moreA company owned by Google has been given access to the healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by a major London NHS trust.
DeepMind, the tech giant’s company most famous for its innovative use of artificial intelligence, is being provided with the patient information as part of an agreement with the Royal Free NHS trust, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals. It includes information about people who are HIV-positive as well as details of drug overdoses, abortions and patient data. DeepMind announced that it was developing a software in partnership with NHS hospitals to alert staff to patients at risk of deterioration and death through kidney failure.
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