Google Android devices hacked

Gooligan is the latest Malware attack launched on Google accounts . Find out more about it and how to combat it in link below .

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Thanks @vax2000 for the heads up. Below is the address to check if you have been affected:

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Thank you for the warning Mike (@vax2000). I had not heard about this one.

Am I correct that it is only affecting Android devices?

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Thanks @grahroll for adding that link.

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@grahroll Thanks for adding the link . Much appreciated .

                      Mike
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@meltam I believe Android devices are the main target of this Malware but check your other devices that run Google too as a precaution .

                                     Mike
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It appears to be only affecting originally Android devices and then only those that have turned on and used Apps from 3rd party sources ie not from the PlayStore. However once infected they can access any Google service you have signed up for eg Google Drive, GMail and so on.

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@grahroll Thanks for that .

                                   Mike
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However to add to the problem a company that develops Firmware for mostly Chinese manufacturers has a backdoor in unknown millions of phones. These include ones made by ZTE (and if that looks familiar it is as Telstra have phones that are made by ZTE and branded to Telstra). See this report here:

here

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/business/chinese-company-shanghai-adups-technology-admits-it-planted-spyware-in-mobile-phones/articleshow/55472239.cms

here

and here

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@grahroll A rather disturbing read . My Telstra phone is a ZTE T126 :((

They also provide firmware for Huawei and who knows who else so could be a right muddle

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@grahroll The information and cyberwar on a very grand scale no doubt .

Sounds like an ad for Check Point software. Lot’s of repeats on “news” sites, but little from any other virus vendors and the description of it’s action (rooting the phone) doesn’t sound very plausible. If software could root a phone then they would have been doing it long ago. Rooting needs some manual intervention. That’s part of the whole security model.

@mcintoshr

See this public blog post from Google:

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@grahroll I include myself in this . The amount of back ground material we never take time to read , like what you have posted here , is frightening . Some governments have teams of “hackers” targeting corporations and other Governments and their agencies . This Technology is still in its infancy . That’s the worry .

This is right out of PW Singer’s (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._W._Singer) book “Ghost Fleet: A Novel of the Next World War”. A brilliant fictional novel based on his extensive research into and writing on cyber warfare.

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@meltam You might find this link interesting about North Korea and their elite hack squad " Bureau 121 "
https://www.bestvpn.com/north-korea-hack-south-military/

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Thank you Mike. An interesting read.

Well Yahoo has just revealed another data breach from 2013 this one affecting about 1 billion accounts. For a link to an article about it see:

But it might be worth changing your password and security questions if you have a Yahoo account.

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@grahroll It will be very interesting to see how Yahoo can survive many more “hacks” . I/we watched as Sony Online Entertainment was " hacked " out of existence . I feel users of Yahoo , which I am not , would indeed have their confidence in Yahoo’s security surely tested and would certainly think twice about continued usage of them .