Tag Archives: Android

Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Improving Security And Transparency For Android Apps

Google recently announced some additional details relating to their “Safety Section” feature of the Google Play store. This is part of an ongoing effort to make the Play Store a safer and more transparent place.

At the center of this plan is a new requirement that app developers must share details about what information their apps collect, how the collected data is being utilized, what privacy and security features the app in question offers, and what features of the device that the app resides on gains access to. Google has now announced a firm date for when that information must be made available to the consuming public: April 2022.

At that time the Google Play Store will be updated to include a new “Safety Section” where all of the information described above will be listed. This will increase transparency on the Play Store, give users added peace of mind, and play an important role in holding app developers accountable. It will also allow users to make better and more informed choices about what apps they install on their devices.

Google shared an overview of the types of questions that app developers will be required to answer in order to comply with the new policy.

These include:

  • Is data collected or shared by your app encrypted in transit? You’ll have the opportunity to disclose this on your label.
  • Do you provide a way for users to request deletion of their data? You’ll have the opportunity to disclose this on your label.
  • Does your app’s data collection practices comply with Google Play’s Families Policy?
  • Are you interested in taking your app through an external security review based on a global standard? You’ll have the opportunity to have this displayed on your label.
  • Is data collection optional or required to use the app?

Privacy advocates around the world have come out strongly in favor of the changes Google is making. This is very good news indeed. The Play Store will be safer than ever when the new policy is fully implemented.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Massive Data Leak Affects More Than 100M Android Users

If you own an Android smart device, be advised there has been a data leak. Security researchers at Check Point have recently discovered a massive data leak that left an assortment of personal data for more than 100 million Android users exposed.

The data was found in unprotected databases used by a total of 23 different popular apps, some of which boast download counts of more than ten million.

Unfortunately, the recent discovery underscores the fact that many app developers aren’t following even the most basic security practices designed to restrict access to the app’s databases.

According to the research team responsible for the discovery, the exposed data includes physical location, gender, stored passwords, stored payment details and photos associated with the apps in question, phone numbers, user names and real names, email addresses, dates of birth, chat messages, and more.

Two of the most egregious examples the researchers found were the app called iFax, and another called Screen Recorder. In the case of iFax, the Android app stored the user’s cloud storage keys and their database contained copies of all fax transmissions from its more than half a million users. In the case of Screen Recorder, which boasts more than ten million installations, the researchers found the cloud storage keys that give access to all of each user’s’ screenshots, which could contain a whole host of sensitive and personal information.

Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. What’s disheartening about the recent discovery though, is how many examples Check Point found during the course of their research. It seems that a dismaying number of app developers are sacrificing security basics in the name of speed and convenience, and the end users of the apps they create wind up paying the price.

All that to say, be careful what you download. An app’s popularity is no guarantee that it’s actually safe to use.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Google Improves Android Feature To Change Compromised Passwords

Several months back, Google introduced a new feature to its Chrome browser that searched a user’s stored passwords, comparing them against a list of known compromised passwords.

The best part is they are alerting the user if any of the passwords they have saved have been compromised. It’s an excellent feature and definitely helps to make users safer.

Unfortunately, too many users were simply ignoring the warnings because the process of changing those passwords was a bit cumbersome.

Undeterred, Google tried again, and has recently added a new feature for Chrome on Android that helps users change compromised passwords, reducing the process to a single tap.

If you’re using the latest version of Chrome on Android, there has been an update. Now, when the browser checks for stolen passwords, your Google Assistant will display a “Change Password” button that will instruct the browser to navigate to the website associated with the compromised password and take care of changing it all by itself. Naturally, if you wish, you can step through the process manually, but in practice, not many people care to do that. Now, you don’t have to.

Patrick Nepper, Chrome’s Senior Product Manager says the new Chrome automates the tedious portions of a user’s web browsing experience, and automatically creates strong, robust passwords to replace any compromised passwords that are found.

The new feature is already rolling out in the US, with the rest of the world to follow in the weeks ahead, so if you’re a US-based user, you may be able to take advantage of the new capabilities right now. If not, you won’t have to wait long.

Kudos to Google for putting user safety and security at the forefront of much of what they do. While some of the changes the company has made have been less than popular, this one should be a rousing success and well received by just about everyone.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Numerous Malicious Financial Apps Discovered Targeting Android Devices

Recently, Google did some house cleaning. They removed ten different apps from the Play Store, all of which contained droppers for financial Trojans, this according to a recent blog post by Check Point Research.

Apparently, all ten of the poisoned apps were submitted by the same threat actor, who took pains to get them past Google’s extensive verification process.

They even went so far as to create separate developer accounts for each of the apps in question.

Of course, that alone wouldn’t have been enough to get past Google. So the attacker took the step of creating innocent looking utilities, with functionality copied and pasted from existing, legitimate, open-source Android apps. On top of that, the hackers utilized Firebase as their command-and-control platform and GitHub was exploited to handle payload downloads. Further, the C2 infrastructure contained an “Enable” flag that was set to “false” until Google had taken the step of actually publishing the app on the Play Store.

In other words, this was a highly sophisticated operation that left nothing to chance.

The Check Point researchers who discovered the threat, dubbed Clast82, had this to say about the threat:

“If the infected device prevents installations of applications from unknown sources, Clast82 prompts the user with a fake request, pretending to be ‘Google Play Services’ requesting the user to allow the installation every five seconds.

The hacker behind Clast82 was able to bypass Google Play’s protections using a creative, but concerning, methodology. With a simple manipulation of readily available third-party resources — like a GitHub account, or a FireBase account — the hacker was able to leverage readily available resources to bypass Google Play Store’s protections.”

Although we don’t yet know who was behind the attack, the group has obvious skill, and this is almost certainly not the last we’ve seen of them. Stay vigilant out there.

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Posted on Author Atlantic Computer Services Categories Blog

Many Mobile Devices Contain A Chip With A Security Risk

A new, high severity vulnerability has been found in Qualcomm’s MSM (Mobile Station Modem) chips, including the company’s latest 5G-capable versions. The security issue could allow hackers to access a user’s call history, text messages, and even listen in on their conversations.

Unfortunately, given the ubiquity of these chips in today’s smartphones, this flaw impacts some 40 percent of the phones in use today. That is including phones offered by some of the biggest vendors on the market today, including, but not limited to LG, OnePlus, Google, and Samsung.

Researchers at Check Point discovered the vulnerability, which is being tracked as CVE-2020-11292.

Yaniv Balmas, the head of Cyber Research at Check Point, had this to say about the issue:

“We ultimately proved a dangerous vulnerability did in fact exist in these chips, revealing how an attacker could use the Android OS itself to inject malicious code into mobile phones, undetected.

Going forward, our research can hopefully open the door for other security researchers to assist Qualcomm and other vendors to create better and more secure chips, helping us foster better online protection and security for everyone.”

For their part, Qualcomm has acted quickly and responsibly. They have been providing security updates designed to address the flaw, and making them available to all vendors using the chips in December 2020.

What that means to the average end user is that if you have a newer device that’s still receiving regular system and security updates, you should be protected. However that still leaves legions of cellphone users potentially vulnerable. For instance, according to industry data, some 19 percent of Android devices in use today are still running Android Pie (9.0), which was released in August 2018, and about 9 percent are using Android 8.1 (Oreo), which was released in 2018.

If you’re one of the users still relying on these older versions, you’ll want to make sure to manually grab the latest update to be sure you’re protected.

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