Researchers Find Google Play Store Apps Were Actually Government Malware

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[–]Robin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Two pieces about Android in one day = New page: https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Android

[–]happysmash27 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

It has been described as "the most sophisticated surveillance machine to date for monitoring your routines."

Citation: https://elpais.com/elpais/2019/03/22/inenglish/1553244778_819882.html

“Until now, research on the risks to privacy from cellphones has been focused on apps that are listed on Google Play or malware,” says Vallina. Instead, he and Tapiador analyzed the pre-installed apps on standard cellphones and it turns out that, due to a complex ecosystem of manufacturers, mobile operators, app developers and service providers, the guarantees offered by Android are looking less than foolproof.

Well of course the pre-installed apps are malware! That's why, if you have an Android phone, you should immediately root it and install your own OS, even if it is just another form of Android! Even GoogleApps tracks your location! This should be obvious; never trust proprietary software!

Android by itself, however, is open source, and does not have backdoors (unless, perhaps, if it is a vulnerability sneaked in to very misleading code, like someone once tried to do with Linux, but none have been confirmed yet to my knowledge).

The biggest risk I see, is, in fact, hardware backdoors, which are much harder to mitigate…

Edit: Seriously though, this quote and the main post seem to me like a revelation that letting a thief into your house (one which is not a friend of you and just randomly asks to come in) may steal things in it. This quote seems to me like then blaming the problem on all humans… You shouldn't trust random people to go into your house, but that doesn't make all humans bad…

[–]Robin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

You're right that the WS page needs attention. I was tired.

[–]happysmash27 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Thank you so much! I was wondering what wording I might use to edit it myself, but now that you've edited it it seems that is resolved :) .

Edit: I made some contributions anyway, as I have quite a lot to contribute on the subject of proprietary malware.

[–]Robin 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I really appreciate the edits. Feel free to contribute on other topics, such as Intel ME. I'm not well informed on that score.

[–]happysmash27 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I wonder if this is referring to the Play Store itself, or some apps on it.

…okay, so it says they were spyware.

…spyware like, oh, I don't know, Facebook, and tons of other proprietary apps? What exactly is the news here? GoogleApps itself comes with what could be called spyware!

Wait…

the researchers saw that after running the check, the malware downloaded a ZIP file to install the actual malware, which hacks the phone and steals data from it.

So that is what's new! I'd say this is more of a problem of the vulnerability that allows it to hack the phone in the first place than of Google! What is the vulnerability though, and is there an available update to fix it? And if it can access so much, could it be used for the good of allowing one to root their Android computer?