If You Have An Android Phone, Read This
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has posted an article that all smart phone owners should be aware of, and Android owners should read very carefully. It contains a list of apps that have been poisoned to “root” your phone and steal all your info.. and maybe do more than that. Worse (scarier), these apps are on the app Marketplace. And, I may have downloaded one.
Stolen apps that root Android, steal data and open backdoors available for download from Google Market
“To many of its fans, the openness and freedoms offered by the Android mobile operating systems is one of its main selling points. But that openness come with a price – it makes it easy for nefarious types to sneak malware into apps. And that’s exactly what they are doing.”
I am going to provide his list of infected apps, but just because you don’t see one you recognize as having installed doesn’t mean you should skip reading his article (click here to read it). It contains info we all should know.
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Toward the bottom of his article is a link to another of his articles, which describes what you need to know to keep your phone safer.
Again, this is important enough that I am asking you to read the article (click here to read it) and forward it to all your friends and family who own smart phones. Android, and Google’s app Marketplace are not the only targets of the cybercriminals. Apple’s store is no better off, and they do not vet their apps for malware.
Makes me glad I haven’t used my phone to check my balance…
Related: Study: Cybercrime cost firms $1 trillion globally (that would be in 2010..)
Data theft and breaches from cybercrime may have cost businesses as much as $1 trillion globally in lost intellectual property and expenditures for repairing the damage last year, according to a new study from McAfee.
Make no mistake: the Evil Doers are going after all Internet-connected devices.
It’s a brave new world.
How nice. Someone is trying to send me a free computer. I like free computers.
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• About Tech Paul
I am a Retired computer & network technician. I used to think the machines were pretty cool. Now I don’t.
They’re anything but.
I regularly posted how-to’s and tricks & tips and general computing advice here starting in 2007. (Use the Search tool to find answers. But be aware, many are rather dated.) Sometimes I answered (your) specific questions in an article if I believed the answer was generally helpful to “everyone”. All the writing you see was my own, typos and all. There always is/was an implied “IMHO” in what you see here.
Note: You are responsible for using this blog and its content. I am in no way liable for any losses caused by user error, viruses and/or other malware, hardware or software failure, or any other conceivable reason.
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Tech - for Everyone 
I read the article…is so discouraging, but NECESSARY to have this info…. thanks Paul.
It’s so normal to want to click on sites out of interest or just curiosity. It will soon become counter productive to the companies who think they are advancing in technology…flooding the market with new devices. Soon we will decide against owning what’s Kool, what’s Better…what has all those Features.
…yes I will pass this info. on
I do not own an Android, nor will I!
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Gaia,
This “discouraging” information is applicable to any operating system, not just Android.
If it connect to the Internet, it needs an antivirus.
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Yes Paul, your point/reminder is well taken.
I realize all operation systems are at risk. I am discouraged in general over “parts of the development” of technology. I think the technology is wonderful… while at the same time there’s so many obstacles in it’s way…in the way of enjoying it as is meant to. I’ve been using computers since the mid 80’s, but now am experiencing a disinterest in what used to be so great. The “want for more and better” has to slow down, (spanning over large areas) so we can catch up with NOW. What a vicious circle we are caught in…so multi-factorial.
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Gaia,
I could be wrong, but I think I understand what you are describing.
But I would like to ask you to consider – and take heart from – this: in spite of my continual harping that user need to take steps to protect their machines from malware and cybercrime, (such as installing antivirus) and exercise “paranoid common sense” on the Internet (such as not opening emails from strangers promising riches), the fact remains that these things (digital devices and the Internet) are simply tools, and that the progress of development of these tools is not going to slow down.. Any tool can be used for good or bad.
I do not want to “go back” to film cameras; carbon paper and typewriters; the US Postal Service; playing games on boards with dice; a medical service whose highest tech would be an X-ray machine; having to go to a theater to see a movie; scratchy, hissing-and-popping LP records; and, it would bum me out tremendously if I could not ‘visit’ my niece and nephew (clear across the country) with video chat, (as I will not fly); having to look for a payphone; and writing checks. Etc..
Yes.. technology can be, and is being, used for “bad”, and there are a few frightening elements to it. It is changing our world and our society. No doubt.
This change is happening fast; again, no doubt. (I recently came across a portable 8-Track player.. and once again, thought, “wow”.)
But look, too, at the good.
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