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An Android-based malware campaign has been found to control as many as 85 million Android devices globally and is making its gang an estimated $300,000 per month in fraudulent ad revenue. A Chinese advertising company called Yingmob is responsible for distributing the malware on a massive scale and would appear to be the same firm behind Yispecter iOS malware , cybersecurity company Check Point revealed. Yingmob, based in Chongqing, China, markets itself as an advertising firm, claiming to provide easy-to-deploy ads support (text, pictures and video ads), without affecting the user experience. The service offers pop-up, sidebar, and in-app ads. However, Check Point researchers claim that the company's "Development Team for Overseas Platform" is responsible for two of the biggest waves of malware: HummingBad for Android and Yispecter for iOS. "Yingmob runs alongside a legitimate Chinese advertising analytics company, sharing its resources and technolog...

A second man has pleaded guilty for his role in ' The Fappening ' breach of 2014, in which the Internet was flooded with thousands of photographs of popular celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence , Kim Kardashian , Kate Upton and Kirsten Dunst. Edward Majerczyk (28) of Chicago, Illinois agreed to plead guilty last Friday to hacking into the Apple iCloud and Gmail accounts of more than 300 victims, including 30 celebrities, between November 2013 and August 2014, federal prosecutors said. Like Ryan Collins , Majerczyk used phishing scheme to trick celebrities into entering their account credentials into bogus 'security' sites and then accessed private and photographs and videos of celebrities. The hackers then leaked hundreds of thousands of explicit photos of Hollywood actresses on the Internet in September 2014 that later known as The Fappening (or 'Celebgate') breach. "This defendant not only hacked into email accounts — he hacked into his...

A former United States undercover agent who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of Bitcoins during an investigation into the underground drug marketplace Silk Road is now suspected of stealing even more of the cryptocurrency from two other cases. Shaun Bridges is one of two former US agents who pleaded guilty last year and was sentenced in December to almost six years in prison for stealing over $800,000 in Bitcoin while investigating the Darknet marketplace. Bridges and his partner stole money from Silk Road accounts and framed someone else for it, which lead the Silk Road chief Ross Ulbricht to plan a murder. Ulbricht is now serving life in prison sentence . Ulbricht was convicted in February 2015 of running the underground black market . According to court filings unsealed on Thursday, Bridges is believed to have stolen additional funds from a Secret Service account on two different occasions months after he was initially charged. Bridges and 46-ye...

Own an Android smartphone? Hackers can secretly install malicious apps, games, and pop-up adverts on your smartphone remotely in order to make large sums of money. Security researchers at Cheetah Mobile have uncovered one of the world's largest and most prolific Trojan families, infecting millions of Android devices around the world. Dubbed Hummer , the notorious mobile trojan stealthily installs malicious apps, games, or even porn apps onto victim's phones and yields its creators more than $500,000 (£375,252) on a daily basis. First discovered in 2014 by Cheetah Mobile, Hummer gained traction in early 2016 when the Trojan family was infecting "nearly 1.4 Million devices daily at its peak" with 63,000 infections occurring daily in China, according to researchers at Cheetah Mobile Security Research Lab. "This Trojan continually pops up ads on victims' phones, which is extremely annoying," researchers wrote in a blog post. "It also pushe...

The heated battle between Apple and the FBI provoked a lot of talk about Encryption – the technology that has been used to keep all your bits and bytes as safe as possible. We can not say a lot about Apple's users, but Android users are at severe risk when it comes to encryption of their personal and sensitive data. Android's full-disk encryption can be cracked much more easily than expected with brute force attack and some patience, affecting potentially hundreds of millions of mobile devices. And the worst part: There may not be a full fix available for current Android handsets in the market. Google started implementing Full Disk Encryption on Android by default with Android 5.0 Lollipop. Full disk encryption (FDE) can prevent both hackers and even powerful law enforcement agencies from gaining unauthorized access to device's data. Android's disk encryption, in short, is the process of encoding all user's data on an Android device before ever wri...

Here's something you'll not like at all: Apple has been awarded a patent for technology that would prevent you from snapping pictures and shooting videos with your iPhone or iPad at places or events, like concerts or museums, where it might be prohibited or inappropriate. The patent , granted on Tuesday by the United States Patents and Trademark Office, is highly technical. Apple's latest patent describes an iPhone or iPad camera receiving coded infrared signals beamed from emitters in public places would temporarily disable device camera functionality, preventing any photography or recording for as long as the signal is on. "An infrared emitter can be located in areas where picture or video capture is prohibited," reads the patent. "An electronic device can then receive the infrared signals, decode the data and temporarily disable the device's recording function based on the command." The technology patented by Apple could also be used to be...

No, it's not Nutella. Google has finally announced the official name of the latest version of its Android mobile software, codenamed Android N: " Nougat ." Yes, the next version of sugary snack-themed Android and the successor to Android Marshmallow will now be known as Android Nougat, the company revealed on Snapchat and Twitter. The announcement comes days after Google set up a website for users to submit suggestions for the name of Android N . Android has maintained its tradition of naming its Android mobile operating system by the names of alphabetically-ordered sugary delights starting from Android Cupcake, Donut, Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Honeycomb, Ice Cream Sandwich, Jelly Bean, KitKat, Lollipop, and Marshmallow . The final release of Android Nougat is still in beta and due later this summer. The good news is that the Google Android team has brought several meaningful features to your smartphone and tablet with the release of Android Nougat. Andro...

Twitter account of another high profile has been hacked! This time, it is Facebook-owned virtual reality company Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe who had his Twitter account hacked Wednesday. Iribe is the latest in the list of technology chief executives to have had their social media accounts hacked in recent weeks. Recently, Google's CEO Sundar Pichai , Twitter's ex-CEO Dick Costolo , and Facebook's CEO Mark Zuckerberg , have all fallen victim to similar hacks. The hacker, who has not been identified yet, changed Iribe's cover photo and replaced his bio to " im not testing ya security im just having a laugh. " The hack became apparent when a tweet from Iribe Twitter account was made saying: "We here @Oculus are very excited to announce our CEO. @Lid ! :)." This tweet was followed by another saying: "Imagine creating the coolest s*** to ever be introduced to gaming and technology but using the same pass for 4 years lol... silly mr CE...

It's no secret that Google knows a lot about you. The company tracks almost everything you do on the Internet, including your searches, music you listen to, videos you watch, and even the places you travel to, and it does this for targeting relevant ads to its users and better improve its service. Now the technology giant has a plan to make it easier to control all the data the company collects throughout all your different devices. Google has rolled out a new My Activity page that shows a searchable history of pretty much everything you do online, including previously visited websites, voice searches, searched things and places, watched Netflix programs, and all activities you did on each of its products. "My Activity is a central place to view and manage activity like searches you've done, websites you've visited, and videos you've watched," Google says. "Your activity is listed as individual items, starting with the most recent. These items...

A massive database of terrorists and "heightened-risk individuals and entities" containing more than 2.2 Million records has reportedly leaked online. Researcher Chris Vickery claimed on Reddit that he had managed to obtain a copy of 2014 version of the World-Check confidential database, which is being used by banks, governments, and intelligence agencies worldwide to scope out risks including suspected terrorists. The leaked database contains more than 2.2 Million records of people with suspected terrorist, organized crime, money laundering, bribery, corruption links, and "other unsavory activities." According to Thomson Reuters, who run World-Check, its service is used by 4,500 institutions, including 49 of the world's 50 largest banks, more than 300 government and intelligence agencies, and law firms. Although the access to the World-Check database is supposed to be strongly restricted under European privacy laws, Reuters says an unnamed third-p...

China has long been known for its strict censorship which makes it difficult for foreign technology companies to do business in the world's most populous country of over 1.35 billion people. Now, the new law issued by the Chinese government will expand its strict Internet monitoring efforts into mobile apps, targeting operators including Apple. However, Google currently doesn't operate its app store in China. The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) has imposed new regulation on distributors of mobile apps that requires both app stores and app developers keep a close eye on users and maintain a record of their activities for at least 60 days . The Chinese internet regulator has introduced the new legislation with the intent to fight issues like terrorism, pornography, violence, money fraud and distribution of malicious contents. However, this new move by the Chinese government will tighten its control over the Internet, especially the mobile apps used for private encry...

Recently, you may have seen some of your Facebook friends started posting a Facebook " Privacy Notice " clarifying that they no longer give Facebook permission to use their photos, personal information, and so on. The Privacy message looks something like this: "From Monday, 27th June, 2016, 1528 IST, I don't give Facebook permission to use my pictures, my information or my publications, both of the past and the future, mine or those where I show up. By this statement, I give my notice to Facebook it is strictly forbidden to disclose, copy, distribute, give, sell my information, photos or take any other action against me on the basis of this profile and/or its contents. The content of this profile is private and confidential information. The violation of privacy can be punished by law (UCC 1-308-1 1 308-103 and the Rome statute). Note: Facebook is now a public entity. All members must post a note like this. If you prefer, you can copy and paste this version....