Items tagged with Spyware
The iPhones used by at least nine US State Department employees have been compromised using the notorious Pegasus spyware provided by NSO Group, sources say. The recent cybersecurity intrusion, which began in the last several months, seems to be focused on State Department employees either in Uganda, or focused on...
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Late last week, it was revealed that a global spyware campaign was targeting politicians, activists, and journalists worldwide. Initially, the company behind the software for spying, NSO Group, was blamed for the data leak and supplying its software to authoritarian regimes. However, NSO Group has since rejected these...
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Audacity sparked quite the firestorm over the weekend after the scope of changes to its privacy policy were revealed to the broader public. The changes came after Audacity was acquired by Muse Group earlier this year.
Some of the key sticking points that alarmed users of the audio editing program were that while...
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For the past two decades, Audacity has built and maintained a following as a capable and free audio editing program. Being a no-cost solution is a big draw, and so are a coupe of other attributes—it's an open source program, and available on multiple platforms (Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux). Some users are starting to...
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Tech companies and consumers alike are rightfully concerned about government agencies seeking backdoors into smartphone operating systems. Agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have exclaimed that backdoors can help them crack smartphones that belong to criminal or child predators. On the other hand...
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Yesterday, we brought you news that the TikTok app has been doing some shady things behind the scenes with devices running iOS. Following the release of the first iOS 14 beta, it was discovered that TikTok was pinging the system clipboard constantly and pasting that data for its own use.
Without the steady stream...
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A third-party security team uncovered a massive ring of Chrome spyware extensions that were all working together. The nefarious extensions had been downloaded a total of over 32 million times and impacted millions of Chrome browsers.
The researchers at Awake Security are coming forward after they informed Google of...
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Avast is a well-known company that sells antivirus software, and provides free versions for Windows and macOS platforms. However, the company has come under fire in recent months due to a browser extension that was found to be sending user data to third-party marketing firms.
At the time, Avast reassured users that...
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The latest “Joker” spyware is no laughing matter as it can easily compromise a lot of the personal data you keep on your phone. Researchers recently discovered spyware that can access your SMS messages, contact list and other information. The spyware was found in over 24 Android apps on Google Play and has infected...
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Some HP laptop customers are outraged over the discovery a piece of hidden software that is getting installed and running without their consent. It is a Windows telemetry serviced called HP Touchpoint Analytics Client that harvests telemetry information that is used by HP Touchpoint's analytical services. it seems to...
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Sarahah, an anonymous feedback app that has recently exploded in popularity across the globe, is now coming under fire for privacy violations. The app stands accused of uploading emails and phone numbers from user address books to its servers. More intriguingly, there doesn’t seem to be a reason for why the company...
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Just last weekend, we wrote about SonicSpy, a grossly robust piece of malware that infected hundreds of apps on the Play Store. Google is always quick to remove this awful junk when it is detected, but the fact that we keep talking about the issue means it's not going away.
It was security research firm Lookout...
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A freelance security consultant and Handler at SANS Internet Storm Center has discovered a rather interesting exploit in Microsoft Word, one that allows an attacker to abuse the productivity program's ability to auto-update links. This is a feature that is enabled by default—when you add links to external sources like...
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Despite Google's best efforts to protect its users who download apps from its Play Store, some malware inevitably slips through the cracks. While it might be easy to assume that most of that malware is found in obscure software that people shouldn't be downloading anyway, this latest case is proof that if malware does...
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The last thing that Verizon customers were probably asking for was the addition of yet another app to invade their Android smartphone. But that is just what the nation's #1 wireless carrier is doing with the inclusion of AppFlash, which will gain prominent positioning on the home screens of Verizon smartphones (sans...
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The folks at Lookout Mobile Security released the 2011 Mobile Threat Report, which offers a sobering look at the current state of mobile threats. According to the report, mobile users are more likely than ever to experience a malware attack, and the tactics that cybercriminals are employing are increasingly...
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If you have a Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, iOS, or Android smartphone, your phone even now could be infected with spyware. However, it might be spyware that your significant other or spouse intentionally installed on your phone. The software is ePhoneTracker. Released last week, ePhoneTracker allows users to monitor everything one...
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If you've surfed the Internet for any length of time, chances are good that you've seen a browser window pop up with a warning that your computer is in DANGER from a whole slew of evil viruses. Such windows, if clicked on, often perform an utterly fake virus scan during which they invariably "detect" infected/contaminated files. Users are...
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Thinking of using those newfound hacking skills to engage in nefarious behavior? Think again. Albert Gonzalez is a name that'll go down in hacking history, but it's not for anything positive. After being charged with stealing some 130 million credit and debit card numbers, Albert plead guilty to previous data-theft...
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There's hardly anything that gets us at HotHardware more steamed than spyware, and we can only imagine how infuriated over 100,000 BlackBerry users in the UAE are after being fooled with a spyware-infused update. In a story that's sounds too bizarre to be true (but is, in fact, true), Etisalat--a major cellular operator in the United Arab...
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After a 10-month cyber espionage investigation, researchers have found 1,295 computers in 103 countries with software that is capable of stealing information from high-profile targets such as the Dalai Lama and government agencies around the world. In the report published today by Information Warfare Monitor, a Toronto-based organization,...
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Lavasoft, developer of the long-time entrant in the spyware detection arena, Ad-Aware, has released a stand-alone antivirus application. The new product, Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix is based on technology from antivirus vendor Avira. It's interesting that Lavasoft would make this move shortly after Microsoft's announcement to drop OneCare and...
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