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Four months after security researchers uncovered a " Tetrade " of four Brazilian banking Trojans targeting financial institutions in Brazil, Latin America, and Europe, new findings show that the criminals behind the operation have expanded their tactics to infect mobile devices with spyware. According to Kaspersky's Global Research and Analysis Team (GReAT), the Brazil-based threat group Guildma has deployed " Ghimob ," an Android banking Trojan targeting financial apps from banks, fintech companies, exchanges, and cryptocurrencies in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Germany, Angola, and Mozambique. "Ghimob is a full-fledged spy in your pocket: once infection is completed, the hacker can access the infected device remotely, completing the fraudulent transaction with the victim's smartphone, so as to avoid machine identification, security measures implemented by financial institutions and all their anti-fraud behavioral systems," the cybersecur...

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a GIF is worth a thousand pictures. Today, the short looping clips, GIFs are everywhere—on your social media, on your message boards, on your chats, helping users perfectly express their emotions, making people laugh, and reliving a highlight. But what if an innocent-looking GIF greeting with Good morning, Happy Birthday, or Merry Christmas message hacks your smartphone? Well, not a theoretical idea anymore. WhatsApp has recently patched a critical security vulnerability in its app for Android, which remained unpatched for at least 3 months after being discovered, and if exploited, could have allowed remote hackers to compromise Android devices and potentially steal files and chat messages. WhatsApp Remote Code Execution Vulnerability The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2019-11932 , is a double-free memory corruption bug that doesn't actually reside in the WhatsApp code itself, but in an open-source GIF image parsing library th...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Remember the Simjacker vulnerability? Earlier this month, we reported about a critical unpatched weakness in a wide range of SIM cards, which an unnamed surveillance company has actively been exploiting in the wild to remotely compromise targeted mobile phones just by sending a specially crafted SMS to their phone numbers. If you can recall, the Simjacker vulnerability resides in a dynamic SIM toolkit, called the S@T Browser , which comes installed on a variety of SIM cards, including eSIM, provided by mobile operators in at least 30 countries. Now, it turns out that the S@T Browser is not the only dynamic SIM toolkit that contains the Simjacker issue which can be exploited remotely from any part of the world without any authorization—regardless of which handsets or mobile operating systems victims are using. WIB SIM ToolKit Also Leads To SimJacker Attacks Following the Simjacker revelation, Lakatos, a researcher at Ginno Security Lab, reached out to The Hacker News earli...

Chinese smartphone manufacturers have been criticized many times for suspected backdoors in its products, the popular Chinese smartphone brands, Xiaomi and Star N9500 smartphones are the top examples. Now, the China's third-largest mobile and world's sixth-largest phone manufacturer 'Coolpad' , has joined the list. Millions of Android smartphones sold by Chinese smartphone maker Coolpad Group Ltd. may contain an extensive "backdoor" from its manufacturer that is being able to track users, push unwanted pop-up advertisements and install unauthorized apps onto users' phones without their knowledge, alleged a U.S. security firm. OVER 10 MILLION USERS AT RISK Researchers from Silicon Valley online security firm Palo Alto Networks discovered the backdoor, dubbed " CoolReaper ," pre-installed on two dozens of Coolpad Android handset models, including high-end devices, sold exclusively in China and Taiwan. The backdoor can let attacke...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has arrested the CEO of a UK-based company for allegedly advertising and selling a spyware app to individuals who suspect their romantic partners of cheating on them. The dodgy cell phone spyware application, dubbed as StealthGenie , monitors victims' phone calls, text messages, videos, emails and other communications "without detection" when it is installed on a target's phone, according to the Department of Justice. The chief executive officer of a mobile spyware maker is a Pakistani man collared 31-year-old Hammad Akbar , of Lahore, who was arrested over the weekend in Los Angeles for flogging StealthGenie spyware application and now faces a number of federal charges. According to the US Department of Justice, Akbar operates a company called InvoCode, which sold the StealthGenie spyware app online that can intercept communications to and from mobile phones including Apple, Google, and BlackBerry devices. T...

Android platform is becoming vulnerable day by day and hackers always try to manipulate android by applying novel techniques. In this regard, Symantec researchers have found a new android malware toolkit named " Dendroid ". Previously Symantec found an Android Remote admin tool named AndroRAT is believed to be the first malware APK binder. However, Dendroid runs on HTTP with many malicious features. Dendroid toolkit is able to generate a malicious apk file that offers amazing features like: Can delete call logs Open web pages Dial any number Record calls SMS intercepting Upload images, video Open an application Able to perform DoS attack Can change the command and control server The author of Dendroid also offers 24/7 customer support for this RAT and Android users can buy this toolkit at $300 by paying Bitcoin , Lifecoin. Experts at Symantec said that Dendroid has some connection with the previous AndroRAT toolkit . Dendroid being an HTTP RAT offers PHP ...

Are you using a pattern lock for your Smartphone to remain untouched from cyber criminals? But you are not aware that even your swipe gestures can be analyzed by hackers. Neal Hindocha, a security adviser for the technology company Trustwave , has developed a prototype malware for the Smartphones that works the same as a keylogger software for desktop. The malware dubbed as ' Screenlogging ', is capable of monitoring finger swipes on the screen of your smart devices in combination with taking screenshots to know exactly how the user is interacting with their phone or tablet, reported by Forbes . The concept used by him is the same that of Keyloggers, a critical type of malware for cyber criminals, which records the input typed into the keyboard and can easily detect passwords for email, social media and of online bank accounts. In the same way the ' Screenlogger ' take care of the inputs taped and swiped on the screen. It logs the X and Y coordinates where the user ha...

The year 2014 starts with the formation of new mobile malware like ' Android . HeHe ', with the ability to steal text messages, intercept phone calls, and other malware such as ' XXXX . apk ' uses WiFi networks or hotspots to steal information, infected more than 24,000 Devices. But it should not be forgotten by us that 2014 marks the 10th Anniversary of the World's First mobile malware . FortiGuard Labs has published a whitepaper  that briefly explains the major mobile threats from 'Cabir' to 'FakeDefend' over the last decade. The world's first mobile malware was ' Cabir ', detected in 2004 when mobiles were not so popular among all of us. It was developed by the group of hackers known as 29A , designed to infect the Nokia Series 60 , the most popular Smartphone platform with tens of millions users worldwide at that time. The name " Caribe " appears on the screen of the infected phones and the worm spreads itself by seeking other devices such as ...

Last year Samsung launched a security feature called ' KNOX ' for high-end enterprise mobile devices. It's a nice security addition and free with new Samsung handsets such as the Galaxy Note 3 and Samsung Galaxy S4. Samsung Knox is an application that creates a virtual partition (container) within the normal Android operating system that allows a user to run two different Android systems on a same device, so that you can securely separate your personal and professional activities. KNOX based virtual operating system of your phone requires a password to be accessed and helps you to securely store data that they're especially concerned about, such as personal pictures and video, in protected containers that would be resistant to hacking attempts on stolen devices. You can switch between Knox mode and personal mode using shortcuts in the app tray and notification tray. All the data and applications stored in the KNOX container system are completely isolated from the rest...

A couple of years ago, the tech world was abuzz about the cloud. Cloud computing refers to computing where the processing or storage takes place on a networked series of computers rather than on the device that you're using. Whether you're using a PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone, television, or video game console, everything now connected to Cloud Storage and always in sync. But there is a limitation, that smartphones can essentially remember deleted information, which poses a huge risk to organizations that issue smartphones to employees and to organizations that don't explicitly disable the use of personal devices for work-related computing. Researchers at the University of Glasgow found that cloud storage apps that say they send files to the cloud also leave retrievable versions of files on the devices. They  tested some cloud-based file storage systems tested included Box, Dropbox and SugarSync on HTC Desire, running Android 2.1, and an iPhone 3S running iOS 3. They...

T-Mobile devices having a default Wi-Fi Calling feature that keeps you connected in areas with little or no coverage using Wi-Fi connection. But according to new finding by students Jethro Beekman and Christopher Thompson from University of California Berkeley, that this feature lets millions of Android users vulnerable to Man-in-the-Middle attack . The simplest way to become a man-in-the-middle would be for the attacker to be on the same open wireless network as the victim, such as at a coffee shop or other public space. In a technical analysis of the exploit, The flaw could potentially allow hackers to access and modify calls and messages made by T-Mobile users on certain Android smartphones. Beekman and Thompson informed T-Mobile, a division of Deutsche Telekom, of the flaw in December and on March 18 T-Mobile was able to resolve the issue for all affected phone models. T-Mobile uses regular VoIP for Wi-Fi Calling instead of a connection that encry...

After a series of security issues, it appears that Apple still has not been able to resolve all the issue in iOS . Last week, Apple rolled out its iOS 6.1.2 update to owners of the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch in an effort to fixing the 3G connectivity and an Exchange calendar bugs. Hackers found an iOS 6 bug two weeks ago that allowed thieves into your phone, but only the Phone app and the features contained within could be accessed. Just after that, recently another screen lock bypass vulnerability  reported  in iOS 6.1 by Vulnerability Lab . This vulnerability allows users to bypass the lock screen pass code and access the phones photos and contacts. Researchers say the vulnerable device can be plugged into a computer via USB and access data like voice mails, pictures, contacts, etc.  This particular vulnerability was shared in detail over in a YouTube video for the masses, you can see the video tutorial as shown below: Steps to Follow: ...

Security researcher Andres Blanco from CoreSecurity discovered a serious vulnerability in two Wireless Broadcom chipsets used in Smartphones. Broadcom Corporation, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom BCM4325 and BCM4329 wireless chipsets have been reported to contain an out-of-bounds read error condition that may be exploited to produce a denial-of-service condition. Other Broadcom chips are not affected. The CVE ID given to issue is  CVE-2012-2619 . In advisory they reported that this error can be leveraged to denial of service attack, and possibly information disclosure. An attacker can send a RSN (802.11i) information element, which causes the Wi-Fi NIC to stop responding. Products containing BCM4325 chipsets: Apple iPhone 3GS Apple iPod 2G HTC Touch Pro 2 HTC Droid Incredible Samsung Spica Acer Liquid Motorola Devour Ford Edge (yes, it's a car) Product...