News 200 malicious Android and iOS apps draining bank accounts — check your phone now

Status
Not open for further replies.
Jul 23, 2023
1
0
10
Small critique: While I know nefarious and low effort apps love to steal, appropriate, and downright mimicks or otherwise copy icons and icon elements of legitimate apps (and even desktop pc program icons that do not have legit mobile apps), it would be helpful to include the app store icons of the problematic apps, as well as the developer name they were uploaded under. Someone (who isnt discerning about their downloads and installs) might not remember downloading the 'funny photo bank draining camera' app, but they will remember that one icon they always see in their app drawer when looking for their camera app.

It would also be helpful to mention and link to an article about using a computer and ADB to uninstall apps and bloatware. Although do remember to warn readers while removing crapware, bloat, brand installed junk, etc, deleting the wrong system file can lead to a loss of features requiring a factory reset. However considering how much garbage some providers and manufacturers put on devices (LOOKING AT YOU SAMSUNG! AND LG! Like, we already need to log into google, what the hell is the point of copying the very services Google already forces upon us.....except worse? In both usability and privacy concerns...And why does facebook need an auto reinstalling package manager on MY device? Ill decide if I want facebook on my phone, when facebook pays for my phone then it can have a say about whats on it!), its usually worth looking into removing them. Especially for the more technically minded and privacy conscience audience.

The only reason so many companies, manufacturers,and app developers believe they can get away with these behaviors that 10 years ago, on a PC, we would have likened them viruses, trojans, worms, etc is how complacent so many people are and allowing these background processes to continue running on their devices. Say "No!" people. Samsung removed the IR blaster in their devices because no one used their piece of cow dung Peel app, but many did you use other third party apps (irPlus FTW!). So according to their metrics since no one used their app, no one was using the IR blaster, no point in having it in the devices. Now of course this is a failing in how they collect and interpret their metrics, and to be honest monitoring the usage of the IR blaster versus simply whenever their program was launched would have had bad optics in the realm of privacy but the lesson is clear....

Screw up their metrics, don't allow these programs to run, or even exist on your device, in the background and they will get the message.

.... Or they'll double down on forcing you to use them anyways. But at least they won't be able to do it surreptitiously, it'll force their hand in doing it blatantly and in the open.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.