Google Play apps harboring the BadNews Android malware that has recently made the news have been spotted in the wild since June 2012 as Android.Trojan.InfoStealer.AK, according to Bitdefender specialists. The June 2012 version of BadNews was not designed to install fake updates, but could have been a first attempt at testing a new malware delivery system able to bypass Google’s app screening process. Althou...

With adware gleaning more user data from people devices than they would normally need too and developers bundle more than one adware framework into their apps, user privacy is increasingly taking a backseat to profit for developers and advertisers. More and more unknown third parties now have access to user browsing history, phone numbers, email address and everything they need to compile comprehensive and ...

A new spam campaign uses the promise of hot dates to lure Germans to a page with promises of MacBooks, iPhones and iPads. The e-mail poses as an announcement from eHarmony to see photos of singles and “find love today” but it actually works to attract victims to a fraudulent web site. After clicking on the link promising photos of singles, users are redirected to a fake survey website and tempted with popul...

North American and European Android users face the greatest chance of having their money stolen, while Asians tend to be bombarded with annoying ads and shortcuts from aggressive adware, according to a study by Bitdefender®. Countries with a high risk of being infected by money-stealing Android malware include the United States (16%), France (15%), Romania (15%), the United Kingdom (10%) and Germany (9%) th...

Some popular Android apps aimed at boys and girls in the US such as Tic Tac Toe Kids and Chef Cook Mania - Cooking Game habor aggressive adware capable of tracking and profiling children and hitting them regularly with unwanted advertising, according to Bitdefender®, the leading global antivirus company. The analysis was conducted in light of a recent study by the Federal Trade Commission on Google Play app...

Android malware is something we’ve seen spreading and evolving for the past couple of years as smartphones became an essential part of our lives. Few users are aware of how Android malware works. Few understand their complexity or the amount of data they can pillage from handsets. As such, we decided to come up with a short series of articles to take apart some of the most common and potentially dangerous A...

Several of the most popular Android apps are skimming users’ phone numbers, e-mail addresses and other data and uploading it to third party servers that belong to companies specialized in advertising to Android users, according to a Bitdefender analysis. Paradise Island, Love Calculator, Samsung TV Media Player are among the popular apps that have adopted this practice, taking sensitive user data and upload...

Laptops and smartphones get lost or stolen with unsettling frequency, according to the latest research data from a Bitdefender survey. A whopping 31% of participants claimed they or someone they know had their mobile device (a laptop or smartphone) stolen or lost, lending further credence to the idea that mobile users are at risk for more than data theft and inflated bills from premium-rated SMS charges. Ye...

Bitdefender Labs recently analyzed an Android app that collects geolocation data, device IDs, email addresses and more. Although no longer available in the official store, the app lures users with the promise of access to a comprehensive Japanese database with advanced queries based on name, location and even phone numbers. While the application looks legit and promises access to a database of 38 million co...

Following the remote wipe attack on some Samsung devices via a USSD code embedded in URL links with the “tel” prefix, QR codes and NFC-enabled cards, a new vulnerability in Android OS could affect millions of users. The new USSD attack can change a SIM PIN and brute force a PUK lock, rendering the card unusable. The attack works by changing a card’s SIM PIN and trying the wrong PUK code several times, brick...