First Tor-Based Android Malware Spotted in the Wild

We use our Smartphone devices to do almost everything, from Internet Banking to Sharing private files and at the same pace, the mobile malware sector is also growing.

The number of variants of malicious software aimed at mobile devices has reportedly risen about 185% in less than a year. 

Security researchers have observed a growth in the numbers of computer malware families starting to use TOR-based communications, but recently the Security Researchers at anti-virus firmKaspersky Lab have spotted the world's first Tor-Based Malware for Android Operating system.

The Android Malware dubbed as 'Backdoor.AndroidOS.Torec.a', using Tor hidden service protocol for stealth communication with Command-and-Control servers.

Researchers detected that the Trojan is running from .Onion Tor domain and working on the functionality of an open source Tor client for Android mobile devices, called 'Orbot', thus eliminating the threat of the botnet being detected and blocked by law enforcement authorities, although often it's not clear how many devices has been infected by this malware till now.

The Trojan is capable of intercepting and stealing incoming SMS, can make USSD requests, stealing device information including 'the phone number, country, IMEI, model, version of OS', can retrieve the list of installed applications on the mobile device, and also can send SMSs to a specified number.

Kaspersky didn't mention particularly that the malware is focused on stealing banking information or not, but the popularity of Android OS is kept motivating cyber criminals to develop far more advanced Android malware with more stealthy and anti-reverse methods.

Here are some things you can do to dramatically reduce the risk of malware infections on your Android phone:

• Install apps from official Android Market instead of third-party app stores or websites.
• Before installing any apps, check the publisher and app reviews.
• Pay attention to app permissions during the installation.
• Install Antivirus and Firewall apps.

World’s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox Shuts Down; CEO quits Bitcoin Foundation

World’s largest Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has shut down its website, withdrawal system, deleted its Twitter feed and halted all trading systems after it detected "unusual activity."

The Bitcoin Foundation, a Bitcoin advocacy group, confirmed that Mark Karpeles, the chief executive of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange has resigned from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation. This comes just days after the exchange gave an update regarding the technical issues.

Last week, Mt. Gox said a technical glitch that had forced the exchange to suspend bitcoin withdrawals for a week. They discovered the transaction falsification glitch and same flaw alleged to have been used to steal all of the bitcoins worth about $2.7 million from Silk Road 2.0.

Later, some sources close to the matter have confirmed that more than 700,000 bitcoins are indeed missing from MtGox records, in a 'slow-leak' hack that went on for years. The repeated technical glitches over the past several months caused the Shut down of the biggest Bitcoin Industry.

Bitcoin companies 'Coinbase, Blockchain.info, Circle, Kraken, Bitstamp, and BTC China' have issued a joint statement regarding MtGox.

"This tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt.Gox was the result of one company’s abhorrent actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of bitcoin and the digital currency industry. There are hundreds of trustworthy and responsible companies involved in bitcoin. These companies will continue to build the future of money by making bitcoin more secure and easy to use for consumers and merchants." "We strongly believe in transparent, thoughtful, and comprehensive consumer protection measures. We pledge to lead the way."

MtGox has also deleted its entire Twitter feed, which is nearly unprecedented. Late last week, Bitcoin prices dropped to the lowest they have been since June, by $300 and currently, the value on MtGox is swinging between $300 and $500.

Seduced by Google, Nokia builds droids

CEO Stephen Elop presents the new Nokia XL at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, on February 24, 2014 (AFP, Lluis Gene) Nokia, soon to be acquired by Microsoft, is turning to software created by arch-rival Google for a new line of phones it hopes will make it a late contender in the dynamic low-cost phone market. Nokia's first models, Nokia X, X+ and XL, rely upon an open version of the Android mobile software system created by Google that has become the world's most popular software used in smartphones.  The release of the phones just days before Nokia sells its handset business to Microsoft in a $7.2 billion deal, is an attempt to stay relevant in emerging markets, where low-cost Android phones are being snapped up by hundreds of millions of buyers.  Nokia Chief Executive Stephen Elop said the market had "shifted dramatically", and the group needed to address a sub-$100 segment that is set to grow four times faster than more expensive phones.  He told a crowded press conference at the Mobile World Congress trade fair in Barcelona that rather than being an 180-degree turn in its strategy of using Microsoft's Windows Phone for smartphones, it was a move that introduces the "next billion" users to Nokia's hardware and Microsoft's services.  "We see the X family being complementary to (Windows Phone) Lumia at lower price points," he said. "Even as you see Lumia push lower and lower, you will see us push lower with Nokia X below that."  But the strategy shift underlines the many missteps made by the Finnish company since Apple launched its ground-breaking iPhone in 2007.  Windows shut out  In February 2011, Elop famously compared Nokia's failing smartphone strategy - based on multiple software platforms of its own making - to a man on a burning platform.  He chose to jump into the arms of Microsoft, producing high-end Lumia-branded smartphones that have been well received by critics, but less popular with customers and app developers, the people who make the software that turns phones into multi-purpose tools.  Elop said on Monday he had not jumped the wrong way.  "There's quite a lot of vendors... who made the Android decision but couldn't differentiate," he said. "We wanted to build with Microsoft a third ecosystem, and that's what we are doing while others fall by the wayside."  But the Microsoft technology does not work on the chip sets found in cheaper smartphones, the fast-growing market crowding out Nokia's Asha feature phones, which lack the full Internet capabilities of smartphones.  The company rejected Android three years ago, when it tied its fortunes to Microsoft's Windows Phone. But Monday's announcement shows it has quietly been working on an open Android device for months.  Product Marketing Vice President Jussi Nevanlinna said the number one requirement from customers was access to Android apps.  "Our fans oftentimes tell us 'We love your hardware, we love your products, but we also love our Android apps'," he said. "Can you make something happen so the Android apps magically run here?'"  The Nokia X family uses the open source version of Android, which runs most apps without the right to customise Google's basic software.  Nokia services  The open version of Android software means that the new Nokia phone does not have rely on Google's services and access to the Google Play app store. Instead, Nokia is bundling it with its own music and map offers, and Microsoft's email, cloud, messaging and search services.  Apps will be available in Nokia's own app store, as well as a host of other app stores, Elop said.  The look of the Nokia X devices is starkly different from the usual Android phone, with nods to Lumia and Asha interfaces.  Elop said rather than confusing customers, Nokia X - where X indicates a cross between Nokia hardware, Android apps and Microsoft services - will be a stepping stone to Lumia, and will share the same cloud services.  "Lumia continues to be our primary smartphone strategy," Elop said. "Lumia is where we will continue to introduce the greatest innovation.  The Nokia X, which has a four-inch screen, will be available immediately, Nokia said. The X+, with more memory and storage, and XR, which has a five-inch display, will be on sale early next quarter priced at 99 euros and 109 euros, respectively.  They will be on sale in all markets apart from Japan and Korea, where Nokia is not present, and North America. Reuters

Fast, furious & easy

'Strider is a reboot of the 1989 arcade classic by the same name developed by Capcom and Double Helix, who were recently bought by Amazon. While the graphics are up to date, as is the gameplay, the story is decidedly to the point. Taking place in a dystopian future, you're an elite ninja looking to assassinate Grandmaster Meio, who rules the world from a bunker in Kazakh City. 

That's as much as a story as you'll get. This threadbare approach to narrative allows you to focus on what the game excels at, namely putting you in the shoes of a technologically advanced ninja slicing enemies at the speed of sound. It's fun to begin with but wears thin soon enough. 

Along the way you'll find enhancements to your repertoire. From powerful attacks to skills such as double jumps, you'll unlock a slew of upgrades needed to get slay the game's final boss and more importantly, navigate around Kazakh City. With every section of it open to exploration from the beginning, you'll require specific abilities such as sliding, to traverse its many nooks and crannies. 

Much like modern day classics such as Guacamelee and Shadow Complex, you'll find yourself acquiring gear from bosses and going back to previously visited areas with new skills to progress through the game. 

Though the emphasis on exploration is welcome, we can't say the same about Strider's combat. For a large part of it, you'll find yourself pressing the same button over and over again to defeat the diverse range of bosses and enemy soldiers. 

There is very little challenge in the way of hacking and slashing your foes to their doom. Even boss battles are extremely easy to the point where you'll find yourself upping the difficulty just for more of a challenge. Not until you reach the game's ending segments do you encounter something remotely challenging. 

This one-dimensional gameplay wherein it's remarkably easy to get by without letting your finger off the attack button while barrelling down the game's many corridors makes things more monotonous than they ought to be. Couple this with a host of levels that have very little to distinguish between them and you have a reboot that could have been a lot better. All said and done, Strider is a so-so attempt that has very little to distinguish itself from a host of other titles available. Simplistic combat and watered down difficulty keep it from being a must play game.'

STRIDER Developer: Double Helix Platform: PS3, PS4, PC, X360 Price: PC Rs 930, PS3/PS4 Rs 900, X360 Rs 940 

YouTube ads serve Banking Trojan Caphaw

Number of Malvertising attacks are appeared to be increasing day by day, even top websites fall victim to such kind of attacks - YouTube is to be the latest popular organization affected by malicious ads.

Security experts from Bromium have discovered that the cyber criminals were distributing a malware via YouTube ads.

According to researchers,  malicious ads attempt to exploit vulnerabilities in outdated Java.  It loads different malicious jar file, to ensure the exploit is compatible with the installed java version.

The Exploit kit used in this attack "Styx Exploit Kit" which was the same one used by cybercriminals to infect users of toy maker Hasbro.com. 

If the user's machine is having vulnerable plugins, it will exploit the vulnerability and drops a Banking Trojan known as "Caphaw".  Researchers say they are working with Google Security team. 

Silent Circle's Blackphone - Privacy and Security Focused Smartphone for $629

Earlier this year encrypted communications firm Silent Circle and Spanish Smartphone makerGeeksphone announced a privacy-focused encrypted Smartphone called 'Blackphone' and today the company has revealed it as 'Mobile World Congress' in Barcelona.

The Blackphone titled as, “world’s first Smartphone which places privacy and control directly in the hands of its users,” has a fully customized version customized version of Android called PrivatOS and pre-installed with lots of privacy-enabled applications, is now available for pre-order for about $629.

Silent Circle was co-founded by a respected Cryptographer Phil Zimmermann, best known as the creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), which is a widely used email encryption software.

The Blackphone handsets main focus is keeping all of your data secure, and to stop government agencies snooping on your communications. Blackphone will come with a set of application developed by Silent Circle, including Silent Phone, Silent Text, and Silent Contacts as well as other features for firewall and remote wipe when required.

Blackphone also has a 'Kismet Smart Wi-Fi Manager' to improve the security device on public networks, and also provides the private web browsing and secure file-sharing options. The Android-based Blackphone is powered by a quad-core 2 GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage and support for LTE networks.

The Blackphone also comes with SpiderOak, which provides 5GB of encrypted data backup, and Virtual Private Network from Disconnect.me.

But if you think 'Blackphone' is a shield against the NSA or other intelligence agencies Blackphone, then you should know this - Blackphone cannot mask metadata entirely from NSA. No piece of man-made technology is entirely hack-proof.

Mike Janke, co-founder and CEO of Silent Circle told Mashable, "If you are on the terrorist wanted list or a criminal, intelligence services will get into your device... There's no such thing as 100% secure phone."

The Blackphone’s main security feature is voice and text encryption, not about hiding metadata which is related to a communication data such as date, time, location and identity of the users.

Hacking Team sold Spyware to 21 Countries; Targeting Journalists and Human Right Activists

Spying on the world by injecting sophisticated backdoors in software, systems, and mobile phones, leads to violation of the Privacy and Security of every individual. Yes, we are talking about Surveillance, but this time not about NSA.

Instead, Countries including some with poor human-rights records and a much less technically advanced nation are the likely culprits, as they apparently used commercial spyware in making surveillance capabilities that once were the exclusive expertise of the known spy agencies, such as National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ.

Citizen lab, a nonprofit research lab has found traces of a remote hacking tool in 21 countries, developed by Hacking Team, including Ethiopia, Sudan, Azerbaijan and Saudi Arabia, which the team had already denied back in 2013.

Hacking Team, also known as HT S.r.l, is an Italian company, which is known for its powerful surveillance software, Remote Code System (RCS) that it sells to Governments and law enforcement agencies.

Senior Counsel of Hacking Team, Eric Rabe stated that the company does not provide its products to 'repressive regimes.'

"On the issue of repressive regimes, Hacking Team goes to great lengths to assure that our software is not sold to governments that are blacklisted by the EU, the US, NATO, and similar international organizations or any “repressive regime."

Remote Control System (RCS) is a malware, can be defined as 'instrument of crime', infects computers and Smartphones in order to enable covert surveillance. The company claims that its Trojan once installed in the victims’ computer, can intercept encrypted communication, including emails and Skype voice calls. Furthermore, RCS can turn on a device’s webcam and microphone to spy on the user without their knowledge.

The Team prominently advertises that their RCS spyware is "untraceable" to a specific government operator and can be installed remotely. They say that it can scale up to monitor "hundreds of thousands of targets" and is capable of being deployed to Apple, Android, Symbian, and Blackberry mobile devices.

"Hacking Team has made a number of statements that seem intended to reassure the public, as well as potential regulators, that they conduct effective due diligence and self-regulation regarding their clients, and the human rights impact of their products," the Citizen Lab researchers report on Monday. "They also market their RCS product as untraceable. Our research suggests that both of these claims ring hollow." 

The researchers at Citizen Lab have found traces of Remote Control System (RCS) by mapping the spyware's network of proxy servers, which the Hacking Team claims that RCS is "untraceable."

"Our research reveals that the RCS collection infrastructure uses a proxy-chaining technique, roughly analogous to that used by general-purpose anonymity solutions like Tor, in that multiple hops are used to anonymize the destination of information," reads the report. "Despite this technique, we are still able to map out many of these chains and their endpoints using a specialized analysis." Citizen Lab researchers explained.

On the basis of tracing endpoints of Hacking Team proxy chains, the researchers suspected that the agencies of 21 Governments are current or former Clients of RCS, and the country names are Azerbaijan, Colombia, Egypt, Ethiopia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Panama, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Turkey, UAE, Uzbekistan, including Italy which is the homeland of the Hacking Team.

The Governments are targeting for political advantage, including the US-based news Organization, rather than using it for legitimate law enforcement operations.

According to researchers at Citizen Lab, The No.1 suspect is Ethiopian Government, that used the hacking tool created by Hacking Team to carry out the spying operation against the Ethiopian journalists in the United States and Europe.

Hacking Team to Citizen Lab:

“We have established an outside panel of technical experts and legal advisors, unique in our industry that reviews potential sales. This panel reports directly to the board of directors regarding proposed sales.”

However The FBI, which investigates Computer crimes, declined to comment on the Citizen Lab report, but an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and an expert in surveillance technology, Eva Galperin said that:

"If the Ethiopian government is not a Hacking Team customer, then I would sure like to know how their tools wound up being used to spy on Ethiopian journalists."