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Best OLED 4K Smart TVs

Android

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May 26, 2023

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OLED is considered to be the best technology for TVs right now, even though QLED is trying to give it a run for its money. The biggest advantages that OLED has, is that it doesn’t use a backlight. Which allows the black colors to actually be black, versus a dark gray that you’d find on a LED or LCD TV. It also provides more true-to-life colors.

A big reason for this is because OLED panels light up each individual pixel, instead of the entire display. This is why most smartphones have moved to a form of OLED (mostly AMOLED).

But OLED comes at a price. You’ll be hard-pressed to find an OLED TV that costs under $1,000. And there’s really only a couple of TV makers that use OLED. Of course, LG and Sony are the big names in that group. But there are others out there.

Top 8 Best OLED 4K Smart TVs

Here are the best OLED 4K Smart TVs that you can find right now. From LG, Sony, VIZIO, Panasonic and much more.

As mentioned already, these TVs are not cheap, but you do get what you pay for here. So it’s important not to cheap out on something like a TV. Especially if you are looking for a good viewing experience.

	Sizes	Price	Where to Buy
LG B2 OLED (2022)	55, 65, 77″	Starting at $996	Amazon
LG C1 OLED (2022)	42, 48, 55, 65, 75, 83″	Starting at $997	Amazon
Sony A95K	55, 65″	Starting at $2498	Amazon
VIZIO H1	55, 65″	Starting at $1299	Best Buy
LG G3 OLED (2022)	55, 65, 77, 83″	Starting at $2499	Amazon
LG A2 OLED (2022)	55, 65″	Starting at $896	Amazon
Sony Bravia A80K	55, 65, 77″	Starting at $1299	Amazon
Sony A90J	55, 65, 83″	Starting at $1398	Amazon

LG B1 OLED (2022)

Available in: 55, 65, 77-inches
Price: $996
Buy: Amazon

The LG B2 OLED is one of the cheaper OLED TVs from LG for the 2022 model year (the 2023 models should launch around July 2023). It sports the a7 Gen 5 AI processor, so you can catch every detail with the smooth, crisp picture brought to you by the new processor. It can also adjust your viewing and audio settings automatically with AI picture and AI Sound, while AI 4k Upscaling will authentically calibrate every scene.

Experience gaming like never before with features that help you beat the competition. It’s NVIDIA G-SYNC and FreeSync Premium Compatible for real-time action and virtually no tearing .Game Optimizer gives you easier access to all your game settings, while the latest HDMI allows for fast gaming speeds. Plus, you’ll get low input lag and fast response times with Auto Low- Latency Mode and HGiG.

LG B2OLED (2022) – Amazon

LG C2 OLED (2022)

Available in: 42, 48, 55, 65, 75, 83-inches
Price: $997
Buy: Amazon

The LG C2 OLED is the company’s newest and mass production OLED TV for 2022. So this is the latest and greatest in terms of OLED. It sports the new α9 GEN 5 AI PROCESSOR 4K, which is able to adjust the picture and sound automatically, and give you the best experience possible.

It still runs on webOS, which gives you plenty of great apps to use. Like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and more. There’s also support for the Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa on-board. If you use any of LG’s other smart home appliances and products, then you’ll feel right at home with the ThinQ platform built-in. Controlling your washer from your TV.

LG C2 OLED – Amazon

Sony A95K

Available in: 55 & 65-inches
Price: Starting at $2,499
Buy: Amazon

You’ve probably noticed that the Sony X95K is about twice the price as every other TV on this list, and there’s good reason for that. This is the only QD-OLED TV on this list. As it is one of the only QD-OLED 4K TVs on the market today. QD-OLED is a newer technology, hence the price increase here. But basically, it is able to offer superior luminance which provides a brighter and more vibrant viewing experience compared to traditional OLED.

Sony claims that this TV has their best color yet. Which would make sense, with them using QD-OLED here. It also still comes with XR OLED Contrast Pro, allowing you to feel the beauty of OLED with immersive depth and realism, pure black and life-like brightness.

There’s also HDMI 2.1 included here, making it great for next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. There’s support for [email protected], VRR and ALLM.

Sony A95K – Amazon

VIZIO H1

Available in: 55, 65″
Price: Starting at $1,299
Buy: Best Buy

With the VIZIO H1, you can bring your favorite entertainment to life with over a billion shades of color for intense colors and exceptional color accuracy.

With a luxurious bezel-less frame, a profile as thin as 4mm, and intuitive cable management system, VIZIO OLED is the ultimate in next-generation beauty.

As well as 4K 120Hz gaming support, ProGaming Engine automatically optimizes Xbox and Playstation® gameplay with a unique suite of gaming features that provide smoother graphics & more responsive gaming with VRR.

VIZIO H1 – Best Buy

LG G3 OLED (2023)

Available in: 55, 65, 77, 83″
Price: Starting at $2,499
Buy: Amazon

This is the latest and greatest from LG. It is an OLED EVO TV, which is the “next innovation in OLED”. It brings about a brighter, punchier viewing experience with the latest next-generation panel from LG.

This is the G3 model because it uses the gallery design. Allowing your TV to become art when you’re not using it. And it’s possible because of how good OLED actually is. OLED has over 8 million pixels available here. And because it is OLED, each pixel turns on and off individually.

It still runs on webOS, which is going to give you the apps that you know and love. That includes Netflix, YouTube, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and much more. It also supports Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

LG G3 OLED (2023) – Amazon

LG A2 OLED (2022)

Available in: 55, 65-inches
Price: Starting at $896
Buy: Amazon

The A2 series from LG is OLED for less. This is their lower-end OLED TV, and it starts at under $900. That’s different compared to previous years, where the A-series was the more mainstream model. But for the 2022 and 2023 model year, the A-series is more of a cheaper option.

LG has outfitted the A1 with its a7 Gen 5 AI processor, which is going to allow you to catch every detail with smooth, crisp picture. It can also upscale non-4K content to 4K. So you can really take full advantage of this display.

LG has Game Optimizer available on this OLED TV. Which gives you easier access to all your game settings and you’ll get HDR Gaming, Auto Low-Latency Mode, plus HGiG for detailed gaming picture.

LG A2 OLED (2022) – Amazon

Sony Bravia A80K

Available in: 55, 65, 77-inches
Price: $1299
Buy: Amazon

The Sony Bravia A80K has unmatched processing power, the Picture Processor X1 Ultimate analyzes content to bring out OLEDs intense contrast with pure blacks, peak brightness and natural colors.

There’s also Google TV built-in with this one. Sony moved over to Google TV with the 2022 model TVs. So now you’re getting a better version of Android TV here. Still all of your favorite apps are available, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and much more.

With 4K X-Reality PRO, you can experience a more natural picture with 4K X-Reality PRO & Object-Based Super Resolution. See exactly what the creator intended with the advanced color and gradation of TRILUMINOS Display.

Sony Bravia A80K – Amazon

Sony A90J

Available in: 55, 65, 82-inches
Price: $1,398
Buy: Amazon

The Sony A90J is a great OLED TV, it’s a 2021 model with Dolby Vision. Which is going to give you a really incredible picture. That’s also thanks to XR Triluminos Pro and XR OLED Contrast Pro, which make it a brighter OLED TV.

Sony runs on Google TV, so you’re getting over 700,000 movies and TV shows right there onto your TV. There’s also support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.

Sony A90J – Amazon

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Prepare for tons more Android apps on Windows 11

Tech

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May 26, 2023

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Prepare for tons more Android apps on Windows 11

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Windows 11 is about to get a huge influx of Android apps on the Amazon App store for Windows, as it’s now open to all developers.

This week, Microsoft announced that it would be opening up the program for all developers who wanted to do so, to submit their Amazon App Store apps to the Windows 11 platform. As 9To5Google points out, this should lead (hopefully) to a lot more Android apps on Windows 11, as there are currently around 50,000. That’s no small number of course, but it’s far less than what Amazon offers in the app store. Not to mention far less than there are Android apps in general.

Developers will need an open Amazon Developer account to submit apps to Windows 11

While there were limitations on this before, it seems Microsoft is easing up. Noting that the main requirement now is just that developers need to have an Amazon Developer account to submit the apps to Windows 11.

If they meet that requirement, then submissions can be made. This likely means that Microsoft feels the Amazon App Store is in a good spot. And push forward by opening the door for any developer that wants to expand their app’s reach.

Apps of course do need to be tested and approved before they’re published on Windows. So submitting them isn’t guaranteeing they’ll be distributed to Windows users. For new developers, Microsoft has set up a pretty explanatory guide. On top of that, Amazon has plenty of useful information on getting through the process as well.

Running Android apps on Windows 11 may not be ideal for some users. But for others it might be a nice change of pace. For one, you get to use the apps with a larger display. It also might be more comfortable to use your favorite apps on a desktop.

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Luxottica confirms 2021 data leak

Cyber Attacks

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May 26, 2023

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Italian eyewear brand Luxottica, parent company of Ray-Ban and Oakley, has confirmed that the data of more than 70 million customers was accessed in 2021.

The data was exposed after a third-party data storage provider used by Luxottica suffered a cyber attack. It has not currently been made public how the hackers gained access to its network, or which company the third party was. The data breach and theft was revealed after a malicious actor posted a database of the information for sale on the dark web from April 30 to May 12.

In a statement to cyber security news site BleepingComputer, Luxottica confirmed the breach, saying it was the result of a cyber attack in 2021 against a third-party contractor that stores its customer data. The eyewear company also shared that the data accessed includes the names, email and home addresses, phone numbers and dates of birth of its customers. The data, however, did not include any payment information or other sensitive or compromising information, like social security numbers or login credentials.

The company said it discovered the breach through “proactive monitoring procedures” and immediately reported it to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Italian police once it was revealed. According to Luxottica, the owner of the site that hosted the stolen information has now been arrested, the website shut down and an investigation into the cyber attack launched.

Luxottica has additionally informed the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante per la protezione dei dati personali) about the breach and will be “considering other notification obligations”. The company says it “remains confident that its systems were not breached and its network remains secure”.

An investigation into how the breach took place remains ongoing.

Top admin of hacking forum arrested

There have been crackdowns against dark web sites in the recent months, with the FBI shutting down notorious dark web hacking site, BreachForums after arresting its top admin in March of this year.

The administrator of the site, who went by ‘Pompompurin’ and was named as Conor Brian Fitzpatrick by the FBI, was allegedly arrested by the Bureau on March 15 on suspicion of hosting and running the forum.
BreachForums was thought to be the reincarnation of RaidForums, a similar dark web site that was investigated and subsequently shut down by the FBI in April 2022.

It has been used by a number of hackers to break news of data breaches they have committed and as a marketplace for selling the data stolen in these breaches. Large databases of victims’ information have been posted to the site, including those involved in the Medibank data leak, which affected over 9.7 million people.

On March 21, a new admin for BreachForums, who uses the screen name ‘Baphomet’ made a post via the site’s official Telegram channel. Baphomet said it was the “final update for Breached” and that he would be “taking down the forum”.

“I believe we can assume that nothing is safe anymore. I know that everyone wants the forum up, but there is no value in short term gain for what will likely be a long term loss by propping up Breached as it is,” he added.

The reference to “nothing [being] safe” was likely an allusion to the fact that the FBI has taken control of the forum. When the FBI shut down RaidForums in April 2022, the organization seized all its servers and domains, allowing them access to all posts before it was shut down.

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APT Hacker Group Attacking SMBs to Use Their Infrastructure

Hacking

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May 26, 2023

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APT Hacker Group Attacking SMBs to Use Their Infrastructure

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Proofpoint’s security researchers have identified indications of sophisticated threat actors focusing their attention on small and medium-sized enterprises and service providers operating within that particular ecosystem.

The researchers recently issued a cautionary message in their latest report regarding a collection of increasingly severe threats SMBs face.

Researchers utilized Proofpoint Essentials telemetry, caging a vast range of more than 200,000+ small and medium businesses, to identify distinctive APT trends that present significant risks to SMBs worldwide.

Specifically, they highlight the risk posed by well-funded APT groups, as well as the alarming possibility of supply chain attacks originating from managed service providers that are compromised.

Proofpoint’s advisory carries significant concern, as it sheds light on the vulnerability of SMBs, which frequently operate without dedicated security teams, making them susceptible to malware attacks, similar to defenseless targets.

Persistent Threat Actor Groups

The researchers successfully detected numerous advanced persistent threat (APT) actors, exclusively focusing their attention on small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), with a notable presence of threat actors affiliated with the national interests of the following countries:-

Organizations prioritize network security by addressing business email compromise (BEC), cybercriminals, ransomware, and common malware found in the daily inflow of emails received globally.

Advanced persistent threat actors conduct targeted phishing campaigns associated with strategic missions, but, still their widespread understanding remains uncommon.

While the specific missions include:-

Espionage
Intellectual property theft
Destructive attacks
State-sponsored financial theft
Disinformation campaigns

Emerging APT Trends

Proofpoint researchers analyzing one year of APT campaign data have identified Russian, Iranian, and North Korean threat actors conducting phishing campaigns against SMBs, revealing three notable trends in attack types and tactics employed against these businesses.

Here below, we have mentioned those three notable trends:-

APTs exploit hacked SMB infrastructure for phishing attacks.
APTs target SMB financial services with state-aligned, financially motivated attacks.
APTs target SMBs for supply chain attacks.

The Exploitation of SMBs’ Infrastructure

In the past year, Proofpoint researchers noted an increase in instances where SMB domains or email addresses were impersonated or compromised, often through successful attacks on web servers or email accounts, either by harvesting credentials or exploiting unpatched vulnerabilities.

Upon achieving a successful compromise, the compromised email address was subsequently employed to transmit malicious emails to subsequent targets.

If a threat actor managed to compromise a web server hosting a domain, they would exploit the legitimacy of said infrastructure, utilizing it to host or distribute malicious malware toward a target unrelated to the initial compromise.

In a notable finding, Proofpoint researchers discovered that the APT actor TA473 (Winter Vivern) exploited compromised SMB infrastructure to conduct phishing campaigns aimed at US and European government entities between November 2022 and February 2023.

Government entities have fallen victim to email account compromises due to exploiting unpatched Zimbra webmail servers.

Not only has TA473 employed compromised small and medium business (SMB) infrastructure to send emails, but they have also utilized compromised SMB domains to distribute malicious malware payloads.

Apart from this, more threat actors groups like TA422 and TA499 actively exploited several SMBs.

By impersonating Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, TA499 attempted to lure a prominent American celebrity into a video conference call regarding the conflict in Ukraine.

State-aligned threat actors, particularly those associated with North Korea, pose an ongoing threat to the financial services sector by targeting institutions, decentralized finance, and blockchain technology in financially motivated attacks aimed at stealing funds and cryptocurrency, in addition to espionage, intellectual property theft, and destructive attacks.

Proofpoint identified a phishing campaign executed by the North Korea-aligned TA444, targeting a medium-sized digital banking institution in the United States, with the funds obtained likely being utilized to support various aspects of North Korea’s government operations.

Proofpoint’s recent publication highlighted TA444’s deceptive tactics, including impersonating ABF Capital in an email that contained a malicious URL, leading to the distribution of the CageyChameleon malware, showcasing their innovative approach during the latter half of 2022.

TA450’s focus on regional managed service providers (MSPs) in Israel suggests a consistent pattern in their geographic targeting, emphasizing their ongoing interest in exploiting supply chain attacks against vulnerable MSPs to gain access to downstream small and medium-sized business (SMB) users.

APT actors present a real threat to today’s small and medium businesses by compromising their infrastructure, engaging in state-aligned financial theft, and targeting regional MSP supply chains.

APT actors pose a real threat to SMBs today, targeting their infrastructure, conducting financial theft, and attacking MSP supply chains

This research aids business owners and regional MSPs in adopting agile email phishing protection, detecting targeted attacks, prevent spam, and effectively combating cybercrime threats.

Shut Down Phishing Attacks with Device Posture Security – Download Free E-Book

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YouTube TV Makes NFL Sunday Ticket More Convenient with Unlimited Streams

Android

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May 26, 2023

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YouTube TV Makes NFL Sunday Ticket More Convenient with Unlimited Streams

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The NFL Sunday Ticket is coming to YouTube TV this fall, and we’re slowly learning more about the experience fans can expect, later this fall. On Thursday, YouTube TV announced that it is also adding unlimited streams at home for the NFL Sunday Ticket Package.

This comes after feedback from many subscribers about being able to have unlimited concurrent streams. Now this is only going to be in your home. Outside of your home, you’ll be able to use 2 concurrent streams. That is in addition to the unlimited streams at home.

This will be available to those that subscribe via YouTube TV, as well as YouTube Primetime channels.

YouTube TV is also making Multiview available for NFL Sunday Ticket

Among a few other features, YouTube TV is also making Multiview available for NFL Sunday Ticket. Allowing you to watch up to four games at the same time. This is similar to what DIRECTV offered with Sunday Ticket. So it’s not a surprise, but this is new for YouTube TV. In fact, it was testing the feature during March Madness this year.

On top of that, customers will be able to DVR as many games as they want. Since NFL Sunday Ticket does offer every single game – both in-market and out-of-market – to everyone, you can literally record every game. And don’t forget that the Cloud DVR is unlimited. Making this a really sweet option.

The big difference for YouTube TV having the NFL Sunday Ticket, versus DIRECTV, is that you’ll be able to watch it anywhere, without a satellite dish. Since it’s done over an internet connection.

So how much is NFL Sunday Ticket going to cost? Well, it’ll be $349 for YouTube TV subscribers, and $389 with NFL RedZone. For those that just want Sunday Ticket and not YouTube TV, it’ll be $449 and RedZone is added for $489. Now that price is for the full season. It’s more expensive than any other service, because of the deals the NFL has with FOX and CBS for local games. Unlike MLB.TV, NFL Sunday Ticket does broadcast in-market games.

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Malicious screen recording app was stealing data for over 9 months

Tech

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May 26, 2023

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Malicious screen recording app was stealing data for over 9 months

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It comes as no surprise that over the past few years, both Google and Apple have been making efforts to prevent malicious apps from entering their respective app stores. However, threat actors always find a way as according to a new report from ESET, a malicious Android app called “iRecorder – Screen Recorder” was secretly recording and transmitting users’ audio every 15 minutes.

Originally launched as a screen recording app back in September 2021, the app reportedly received a malicious update in August 2022, which installed AhMyth, an open-source Remote Access Trojan (RAT), on users’ devices. This allowed the app to record audio, establish a connection to the attacker’s server, and upload recorded audio files and sensitive data. Additionally, with the appropriate permissions, the app was also able to intercept text messages and phone conversations.

Undetected for over nine months

The fact that the app went undetected for over nine months makes this incident even more concerning, as users had no way of realizing that threat actors were recording their voices every 15 minutes. Moreover, researchers also speculate that the app was possibly part of an active espionage campaign, however, this claim remains a hypothesis without additional evidence.

“It is rare for a developer to upload a legitimate app, wait almost a year, and then update it with malicious code,” said ESET security researcher Lukáš Štefanko.

Although Google removed the app from the Play Store after the incident came to light, it is uncertain whether all current users are aware of its malicious behaviour or have taken appropriate action. Therefore, if you still have the app installed, delete it immediately and run a full scan of your device using a trusted antivirus tool. Additionally, users should always exercise caution while downloading an app, even from the Play Store, and pay close attention to the permissions requested by every app on their mobile device. Furthermore, it is important to regularly check if an app is unnecessarily using data in the background.

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Samsung Bixby update adds new features for US customers

Apps

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May 26, 2023

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Samsung Bixby update adds new features for US customers

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Bixby, Samsung’s virtual assistant, has gone a long way since it was launched five years ago to replace the rather poorly designed S Voice assistant. Thanks to timely and meaningful updates more and more Samsung fans are starting to use Bixby in their everyday lives.

These days Samsung is rolling out another Bixby update specifically designed to improve the user experience for children accounts. When children with Bixby accounts use Samsung’s voice assistant and required additional third-party sharing permissions, they will now be able to request verification of their parental consent.

Currently, this feature is only available in Korea and the United States, but Samsung confirmed that more countries will be added gradually, so anyone with a Samsung phone should get it in the coming weeks.

But this isn’t the only new feature included in the update. According to the changelog spotted by SamMobile, the update introduces the ability to activate voice wake-up when a ringtone, alarm, or Bixby TTS is playing, even without the “Wake up when sound is playing” option.

Users who want voice wake-up to activate when playing music can turn on the “Wake up when media is playing” option in the Bixby settings under Voice wake-up.

Finally, a third new feature added to Bixby in the latest update enables the voice assistant to recommend useful settings related to a wider range of commands. Simply talk to Bixby to start getting these recommendations.

The changelog also mentions that functional improvements and bug fixes have been added too, but no other details are provided. This is a pretty small update that weighs in at around 60MB, at least in Korea and the US where it includes an additional feature.

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Elon Musk’s SSN allegedly leaked in data breach

Cyber Attacks

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May 26, 2023

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Elon Musk’s SSN allegedly leaked in data breach

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Car manufacturer Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, may have had his social security number leaked in a data breach that saw 100GB of confidential information accessed.

The Dutch data protection watchdog, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens (DPA), has said that Tesla may have failed to protect confidential data from employees, customers and business partners.

According to news publication Reuters, Tesla has been accused of failing to protect employee, customer and business partner data after 100GB of confidential information was leaked by an employee. The DPA has said that it is “looking into” the data breach.

According to German newspaper Handelsblatt, the publication which broke the Tesla data leak story, the files leaked include the names of more than 100,000 names of current and former Telsa employees, including the social security number of Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Other sensitive data included in the leak includes the phone numbers, private email addresses and salaries of employees, bank details of customers and confidential details from Tesla production. This would mean the breach would violate European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) laws.

According to Handelsblatt, a Tesla lawyer said a “disgruntled former employee” had abused their position as a service technician to gain access to the data and legal action would be taken against said individual.

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iRecorder Android App Targeted Its Users With AhRAT Malware

Hacking

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May 26, 2023

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iRecorder Android App Targeted Its Users With AhRAT Malware

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Heads up, Android users! If you ever installed the iRecorder app on your phone, it’s time to uninstall it now, as it might be spying on your device. Researchers found the iRecorder app suddenly turned malicious as it infected the target Android devices with AhRAT malware.

iRecorder App Sneakily Barraged Android Users With AhRAT Malware

According to a recent report from ESET, their researchers found malicious activities associated with the iRecorder app on Play Store. Specifically, they observed iRecorder deploying AhRAT spying malware on the respective Android devices.

What’s peculiar in this recent malicious campaign is that the threat actors seemingly waited for quite some time before preying on the users. As observed, the iRecorder app first appeared on the Google Play Store in September 2021. At that time, the app had no malicious codes. And it remained harmless, functioning as a mere screen recording app until August 2022, after which it suddenly started deploying malware.

With version 1.3.8, iRecorder began deploying AhRAT RAT on the devices to monitor users’ activities. Briefly, AhRAT, as the researchers analyzed, is a new remote access trojan based on the open-source AhMyth Android RAT.

After becoming trojanized, the app started functioning maliciously, performing many sneaky activities in the background. While it continued to serve as a screen recorder, it also began extracting users’ surroundings’ sounds via the device’s microphone and stealing stored documents (files with specific extensions) from the device. It would then transmit all the exfiltrated data to its C&C.

Google Removed iRecorder From The Play Store

Following the researchers’ report, Google removed the malicious app from the Play Store. However, until then, the app already garnered over 50,000 downloads, indicating the extent of AhRAT’s infection.

However, the iRecorder app seemed to be a single instance deploying the AhRAT malware. The researchers could observe no other app associated with this campaign. Also, they could not link the activity to any specific threat actor group. However, according to ESET, the specificity of the app’s maliciousness hints at some cyber espionage.

For now, users still running the iRecorder app on their devices must remove it immediately to stop the malware activity. Also, users must always download apps from known developers to avoid falling prey to such scams.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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YouTube Stories are shutting down next month

Android

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May 26, 2023

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YouTube Stories will soon be a thing of the past. The feature is going away in a month. The company has announced that you will no longer be able to post Stories starting on June 26th. Stories shared before that will expire seven days after they were originally posted. The Google-owned video site encourages creators to use Community posts to share quick updates with their viewers.

You might be already familiar with the Stories feature on social media apps. Snapchat introduced this content format where anything you share automatically disappears after a fixed time, which is usually 24 hours. Facebook, Instagram, Skype, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, and many other platforms copied this format from Snapchat, some giving it a unique name of their own (Twitter called it Fleets).

However, not all of them had as much success with Stories as Snapchat or Facebook. Twitter discontinued Fleets less than a year after launch, while LinkedIn waved goodbye to its version of the feature after a year too. Turns out this format isn’t popular on YouTube either. “Amongst creators who use both posts and Stories, posts on average drive many times more comments and likes compared to Stories,” the company said in its announcement.

YouTube added that Community posts are now available to millions of creators. The company has brought some popular aspects of Stories to Community posts to make the feature more appealing. You now get rich editing tools and the ability to make posts expire automatically after 24 hours. Creators can also use new engagement features such as polls and quizzes to strengthen connections or start conversations with their audiences.

YouTube gave Stories its own spin but that didn’t work

YouTube launched Stories in late 2017. The feature was initially called Reels but the company later renamed it to Stories. Following a limited availability for about a year, Stories were expanded to all creators with 10,000 subscribers in late 2018. YouTube gave the feature a unique spin to make it look different. Most notably, those temporary posts live on for a whole week before disappearing, which is a lot longer than the 24-hour time limit on other platforms.

But as YouTube added more ways for creators to engage with their audiences apart from long-form videos, Stories started to take the back seat. The arrival of Shorts, a TikTok-style feed of short videos, in 2020 (out of beta in 2021) may have particularly spelled its demise. The feature lived on for two more years but never caught on with creators. And as of June 26, 2023, YouTube Stories will be a thing of the past.

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