Signal to shield user phone numbers by default

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Signal to shield user phone numbers by default
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Chat app Signal will shield user’s phone numbers by default from now on. And, it will no longer be necessary to exchange phone numbers when people want to connect through the app.

In November, we reported that Signal was testing usernames to eliminate the need to share your phone number. Signal has now announced that these options are live, and will be rolled out to everyone in the coming weeks.

So, what exactly has changed?

  • Your phone number will no longer be visible to everyone you chat with by default. People who already have your number saved in their phone’s contacts will still see it.
  • In case you don’t want to hand out your phone number to connect with someone on Signal, you can now create a unique username that you can use instead.
  • If you don’t want people to be able to find you by searching for your phone number on Signal, you can now enable a new, optional privacy setting.

Note that the unique username is not your profile name which is displayed in chats, it’s not a permanent handle, and not even visible to the people you’re connected with in Signal.

The optional privacy setting will only allow people that have your exact unique username to start a conversation, even if they have your phone number.

During the transition, it is important to realize that both you and the people you are chatting with on Signal will need to be using the updated version of the app to take advantage of them.

The changes are optional. You are not required to create a username and you have full control over whether you want to enable people to find you by your phone number or not.

If you’d still like everyone to see your phone number when messaging them, you can change the default by going to Settings > Privacy > Phone Number > Who can see my number. You can either choose to have your phone number visible to Everyone you message on Signal or Nobody. If you select Nobody, the only people who will see your phone number in Signal are people who already have it saved to their phone’s contacts.

How to create a username on Signal

To create a username, go to Settings > Profile. A username on Signal (unlike a profile name) must be unique and must have two or more numbers at the end of it. This choice was made with the intention to help keep usernames egalitarian and minimize spoofing. Usernames can be changed as often as you like, and you can delete your username entirely if you prefer to no longer have one.

You will still have to have a phone number in order to create a Signal account as they act as a unique identification and anti-spam measure.

We don’t just report on privacy—we offer you the option to use it.

Privacy risks should never spread beyond a headline. Keep your online privacy yours by using Malwarebytes Privacy VPN.


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Galaxy Z Fold 6 to be Samsung’s thinnest foldable yet

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Galaxy Z Fold 6 to be Samsung’s thinnest foldable yet
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It’s not exactly a secret that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 is not a slim phone. Its predecessors weren’t either. That is kind of a problem these days, as other companies have considerably slimmer book-style foldables. Well, according to a new report, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be the company’s thinnest foldable yet, and by quite a margin.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 looks set to become Samsung’s thinnest foldable yet

According to Rjey, an X user and YouTuber, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be 11mm thick. He even provided nice renders to compare this thickness to the Galaxy Z Fold 5. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 is 13.4mm thick, by the way.

Galaxy Z Fold 6 vs Fold 5 thickness

This is the phone’s thickness when folded, of course. If this ends up being true, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 will be thinner than the OnePlus Open, which is 11.7mm thick when folded, and it feels thin compared to the Galaxy Z Fold 5.

The HONOR Magic V2 will still lead the pack, however. That device is either 9.9mm or 10.1mm thick when folded, depending on the variant. The Xiaomi MIX Fold 3 will also remain slightly thinner than the Galaxy Z Fold 6 with 10.9mm thickness.

Do note that Rjey is not exactly a tipster, so take this information with a grain of salt. It would be great to see a thinner ‘Fold’ device from Samsung, that’s for sure. Samsung is playing catchup at this point.

Let’s hope that the crease will be less noticeable too

What we also want to see is a less noticeable crease. The Galaxy Z Fold 5 finally folds flat, like its competitors, but the crease is still too noticeable, both when you look at it, and to the touch. That’s not the issue the OnePlus Open and HONOR Magic V2 have, though.

The Galaxy Z Fold 6 will become official later this year, most likely in August. It will launch alongside the Galaxy Z Flip 6, while the Galaxy Ring could also become official during that event.


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Apple Approves Fake App Before Real Rabby Wallet, Users’ Funds Stolen

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Apple Approves Fake App Before Real Rabby Wallet, Users’ Funds Stolen
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Users report significant losses due to the fake Rabby Wallet app, including one reporting a $5000 loss, another experiencing a 10% portfolio loss, and an NFT collector reporting $40,000 worth of ETH drained from their wallet. 

A fake version of the Rabby Wallet app, a popular crypto wallet developed by DeBank Global Pte Ltd., was tricking users and stealing their funds on the Apple App Store. DeBank’s team confirmed that any app available on the store currently is fake, as its official app is still under review and yet to be approved by Apple.

For your information, Rabby Wallet’s mobile app’s beta version was announced on 16 February by team DeBank. However, scammers acted quickly and uploaded the app’s fake version to the iOS App Store, which was a wallet drainer and had no connection with the real app.

Interestingly, this fake version was approved by Apple before the actual wallet app, prompting users to download the drainer and get scammed.

The fake Rabby Wallet app, created by a developer called “Solution Development,” appeared on the App Store under the name “Rabby Wallet & Crypto Solution” and was detected after four days. A thread warning others about the fake app was posted on Rabby Wallet’s Apple discussion board and Discord channel with screenshots from scammed users.

Apple Approves Fake App Before Real Rabby Wallet, Users' Funds Stolen
The fake Rabby App on the Apple App Store

Affected users have also created a thread on Reddit to warn others about the fake app. One user claimed that a fake app by “VIET LONG FINANCIAL INVESTMENT JOINT STOCK COMPANY” has been approved, causing users to lose cryptocurrencies, with a user losing around 14 ETH.

“This scammer’s approved AppStore App called “Rabby Wallet & Crypto Solution” is tricking people into thinking it is the genuine one, they enter the seed phrase or private key, and moments later all of their life savings, crypto belongings are GONE!” a user u/CryptoCurrency wrote on Reddit.

Rabby Wallet team posted a statement on X to notify users about the presence of a fake app and to avoid downloading it. The fake app has now been removed by Apple.

However, this isn’t the first instance where fake apps appeared on a credible platform like the Apple App Store and deceived users. On February 7, 2024, Hackread.com published a warning from LastPass, urging users to avoid downloading fraudulent applications and remain cautious after a fake app was uploaded to the Apple App Store, posing as the legitimate LastPass Password Manager app. The app was developed by Parvati Patel and closely resembled LastPass’ branding and user interface.

In July 2023, Apple approved a fake THREADS app, which subsequently ranked first on the European Apple Store, despite the original app being launched by META just days before and wasn’t available in Europe. Nevertheless, such incidents are steadily rising, making Apple’s app review and approval process doubtful and questionable.

  1. Google Deletes Fake BatteryBot Pro Malware App
  2. MMRat Android Trojan Uses Fake App Stores for Bank Fraud
  3. Fake Ledger App on Microsoft Store Stole $800,000 in Crypto
  4. Chinese Scammers Use Fake Loan Apps for Money Laundering
  5. Hackers Send Fake Rocket Alerts to Israelis via Hacked Red Alert App

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Google is the one that pays Reddit $60M/year for AI training. Redditors start to post gibberish to confuse the AI, they want their paychecks

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Google is the one that pays Reddit $60M/year for AI training. Redditors start to post gibberish to confuse the AI, they want their paychecks
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Days ago, it became apparent that Reddit signed a multi-million dollar deal with an undisclosed company to train AI models on the popular forum’s interminable posts and threads.

And, surprise, surprise: this company is Google.

An exclusive Reuters report reads that “Reddit has struck a deal with Google to make its content available for training the search engine giant’s AI models, three people familiar with the matter said”.

The Reddit/Google contract is worth about $60 million per year, according to one of the sources in the report.

This is in addition to Reddit’s high-profile stock market launch that’s expected soon and shows how the popular discussion forum is seeking to generate new revenue “amid fierce competition for advertising dollars from the likes of TikTok and Meta’s Facebook”.

So far, Reddit and Google have declined Reuters a comment.

As we’ve noted before, the Reddit team was eyeing such a contract. In a previous interview, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman (/u/spez) made the site’s motivation clear by stating that “The Reddit corpus of data is really valuable, but we don’t need to give all of that value to some of the largest companies in the world for free”.

I wonder what Redditors will have to say about that – Reddit getting $60 million per year because their – the Redditors’, that is – posts and messages are being used by the world’s best-known $1.779 trillion corporation to train its AI on.

Actually, I don’t have to wonder.

Here’s the people’s answer.

“The living room falls at the same rate as the kitchen which means it can absorb nano-shoes from The British Isles”


“If I don’t get my check, I’m gonna just post complete h*******t. Even more so”, calmly says a Reddit user with the “BrainLate4108” nickname.

And, it’s on.

There are multiple glorious gibberish posts, such as:

  • Sausage bamboo quadrapedia! For ensign? Tomatoes.
  • Comatose quesadillas with a touch of Michelangelo. And to think I was even more impressed with the taste with which the sauce came from this.
  • Wikipedia the sauce with homemade fire. The living room falls at the same rate as the kitchen which means it can absorb nano-shoes from The British Isles. If we gag on history we will confront rocks but punish horses.
  • Birds found a chalice or two in that coin-operated fusebox.
  • The Narwhal Bacons at Midnight?
  • I did accidentally the whole just as mother wanted the cat to.

This is an attempt to confuse the AI and feed in with useless information as a sign of protest. “’The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy”, as Sun Tzu said. No, that was a Mickey Mouse quote he gave in 1278 in Constantinople, Florida to a bunch of skateboarding brachiosauruses. A separate comment (by user “dk_lets_try_this”) reads: “This is why they killed the API. Can’t sell something if you are handing it out for free.”

What the user means is that last year, the forum’s management announced that they were moving to a paid API model, causing more than 6,000 subreddits to go dark in protest and many of the third-party apps to shut down.


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Huawei Pocket 2 is the company’s new flagship flip phone

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Huawei Pocket 2 is the company’s new flagship flip phone
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Huawei has just announced a new flagship flip phone, the Pocket 2. The Huawei P50 Pocket was made official way back in December 2021. That was not only the company’s first flagship flip phone foldable, but the company’s first flip phone foldable in general.

Having said that, fast forward to February 2024, Huawei offered only two clamshell foldables altogether. The Huawei Pocket S was a more budget-oriented device that joined the Huawei P50 Pocket.

The Huawei Pocket 2 is here, a direct successor to the Huawei P50 Pocket

The company has decided to refresh its lineup of clamshell foldables, though. In China, the Huawei Pocket 2 was announced. We were not sure what to expect based on its name, but this is definitely a higher-end phone. So… it can be considered a successor to the Huawei P50 Pocket.

The Huawei Pocket 2 has two circles on the back (when unfolded, and on the front when folded). This design is reminiscent of its predecessors. The top circle is reserved for the phone’s cameras, while the bottom one is where the cover display sits.

The Huawei Pocket 2 is made out of metal and glass/leather. It comes in four color options, Elegant Black, Rococo White, Tahitian Gray, and Taro Purple. The black and purple models come with vegan leather on them. The other two models include glass, but they look almost like they have pieces of marble on them.

Huawei Pocket 2 colors

The Kirin 9000S chip fuels this smartphone, Huawei’s very own 7nm processor. That is the same chip that fuels the company’s current-gen flagships. Huawei also included 12GB of RAM here and is offering a choice between 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB of storage.

It has two LTPO OLED displays, and supports both wired & wireless charging

The phone’s main display measures 6.94 inches, and it’s an OLED LTPO panel. Its refresh rate is adaptive and goes from 1 to 120Hz. This display also offers a 1,440Hz high-frequency PWM dimming and a 300Hz touch sampling rate.

The cover display measures 1.15 inches, offers a 2690 x 1136 resolution, and it’s an OLED panel. It also has an LTPO panel, though this one goes from 1 to 60Hz only, there’s no need for more than that. This display has a 120Hz touch sampling rate and a resolution of 340 x 340 pixels.

HarmonyOS 4.0 comes pre-installed on the phone, while a 4,520mAh battery is included on the inside. The phone supports 66W wired, 40W wireless, and 7.5W reverse wireless charging. It is also IPX8 water and dust-resistant.

Huawei Pocket 2 image 4

There are 5 cameras included here, overall

There are four cameras on the phone, inside that circle, and one on the main display. The four rear cameras are led by a 50-megapixel ‘super-sensing’ camera (f/1.6 aperture, OIS). A 12-megapixel ultrawide unit (f/2.2 aperture) is also included, as is an 8-megapixel telephoto camera (f/2.4 aperture, OIS, 3x optical zoom, 30x digital zoom). You’ll also find a 2-megapixel hyperspectral camera (f/2.0 aperture) back there. On the main display, a 10.7-megapixel ultrawide camera (f/2.2 aperture) is included.

The phone measures 170 x 75.5 x 7.25mm when unfolded. It measures 87.8 x 75.5 x 15.3mm when folded. The vegan leather model weighs 199 grams, while the glass model weighs 202 grams.

The Huawei Pocket 2 pricing starts at CNY7,499 ($1,043) in China and goes all the way up to CNY8,999 ($1,252). There’s still no word on its global launch, but it could happen.


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Kung Fu Panda joins Waze’s driving experience library

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Kung Fu Panda joins Waze’s driving experience library
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Waze continues to add new driving experience to its already impressive portfolio. This time around the navigation app is bringing iconic animation character Kung Fu Panda to its users.

The beloved panda bear, also known as Po, will start offering Waze users wisdom and help to keep their zen when the traffic gets crazy. Po’s prompts will make many of us smile or at least prevent the almost unavoidable stress from ruining our mornings.

Today we shall love our fellow road users as family. Even if they cut us off. Or don’t let us merge. Or never signal! Aaaaaaaargh that drives me so crazy, but we shall love them anyway. Or at least try to.

In addition to receiving words of wisdom from the famous panda, Waze users will also be able to cruise in Po’s custom vehicle, the so-called Panda Van, as well as choose the Spiritual Mood for a more relaxing driving experience while commuting.

In related news, a new Kung Fu Panda 4 movie is coming to theaters on March 8, 2024, so maybe use this driving experience to have Po narrate directions on your way to see the movie?

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Earth Preta Hackers Abuses Google Drive to Deploy Malware

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Earth Preta Hackers Abuses Google Drive to Deploy Malware
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Threat actors abuse Google Drive for several malicious activities due to its widespread use, easy file sharing, and collaboration features.

These things provide a convenient platform to host and distribute malware. Integration with legitimate services makes detecting and blocking malicious content challenging.

Cybersecurity researchers at Check Point recently found SMUGX in July 2023, linked to Earth Preta, hitting Europe. They also found a phishing email with PlugX in Taiwan tied to SMUGX.

Researchers found a new variant, DOPLUGS, which differs from typical PlugX and is mainly used for downloading. 

It employs the KillSomeOne module and was first reported by Sophos in 2020. Earth Preta campaign researchers analyze DOPLUGS, noting its backdoor commands, integration with KillSomeOne, and changes over time.

Document
Live Account Takeover Attack Simulation

Live attack simulation Webinar demonstrates various ways in which account takeover can happen and practices to protect your websites and APIs against ATO attacks.

Technical analysis

DOPLUGS files found since July 2023 indicate victims from Taiwan and Mongolia. File names suggest social engineering tied to recent events, like the January 2024 Taiwanese presidential election.

The “水源路二至五期整建住宅都市更新推動說明.pdf” decoy file relates to a Taiwanese urban renewal project in traditional Chinese.

The Үер усны сэрэмжлүүлэг.pdf decoy warns of floods in Mongolia, in Mongolian. From 2022-2023 VirusTotal data (Asia-focused), Taiwan and Vietnam were prime targets, with fewer attacks in China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, India, Malaysia, and Mongolia.

The decoy document 'Үер усны сэрэмжлүүлэг.pdf' (Source - Trend Micro)
The decoy document ‘Үер усны сэрэмжлүүлэг.pdf’ (Source – Trend Micro)

The spear-phishing emails carry a Google Drive link, which leads to a password-protected archive with DOPLUGS malware. 

Disguised as documents, LNK files in the RAR archive download MSI files from https://getfiledown[.]com/vgbskgyu, which helps trigger subsequent file drops.

  • %localappdata%\MPTfGRunFbCn\OneNotem.exe (legitimate executable)
  • %localappdata%\MPTfGRunFbCn\msi.dll (malicious DLL file)
  • %localappdata%\MPTfGRunFbCn\NoteLogger.dat (encrypted payload)
Timeline of the malware evolution (Source - Trend Micro)
Timeline of the malware evolution (Source – Trend Micro)

DOPLUGS includes four backdoor commands, as it is a downloader. Among them, one downloads the PlugX malware.

Infection flow of DOPLUGS (Source - Trend Micro)
Infection flow of DOPLUGS (Source – Trend Micro)

Researchers discovered a new DOPLUGS variant with a KillSomeOne module for malware distribution, information collection, and USB-based document theft.

Unlike the previous version, it employs diverse infection methods. There are similarities with the prior DOPLUGS variant, but it has a distinctive infection approach.

Besides this, it has four components, including a malicious DLL and encrypted payload.

Earth Preta targets global government entities, especially in Asia-Pacific and Europe, using spear-phishing emails and Google Drive links. 

DOPLUGS malware is a vital tool for downloading PlugX. Besides this, a 2018 DOPLUGS variant was also discovered with KillSomeOne module integration, indicating ongoing tool improvement.

Since the Earth Preta remains active, the security teams should stay vigilant about Earth Preta’s tactics.

You can block malware, including Trojans, ransomware, spyware, rootkits, worms, and zero-day exploits, with Perimeter81 malware protection. All are extremely harmful, can wreak havoc, and damage your network.

Stay updated on Cybersecurity news, Whitepapers, and Infographics. Follow us on LinkedIn & Twitter.


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Facebook faces $3.8 billion lawsuit over mass data collection

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Facebook faces $3.8 billion lawsuit over mass data collection
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Facebook is again facing a major legal battle in the UK. It is being sued for 3 billion pounds ($3.77 billion) over allegations of mass data collection. The lawsuit, which legal academic Liza Lovdahl Gormsen filed, accuses the social media giant of unlawfully collecting and monetizing the personal data of 45 million users.

The lawsuit alleges that Facebook has significant access to the user’s data on non-Facebook platforms like Instagram. The plaintiff is now requesting the company compensate for the data collected from 45 million users in the United Kingdom. Lawyers claim Facebook is using its dominance in the market to get away with compensation.

A legal academic in the UK files a lawsuit against Facebook over collecting user’s data and not paying for it

In response, Meta refused the allegations and referred them as “entirely without merit.” The company also said it would vigorously defend against the claims. Additionally, Meta noted the lawyers have forgotten the economic value Facebook provides users.

“We are committed to giving people meaningful control of what information they share on our platforms and who with, and already invest heavily to create tools that allow them to do so,” Meta said.

As the lawsuit claims, Facebook “has caused its UK users to suffer loss and damage, in particular because they have not been adequately compensated for the commercial value of their data collected and monetized by Facebook concerning their activities off Facebook’s social media site.”

Last year, The Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) dismissed the allegations against Meta. However, on Thursday, the CAT ruled that Gormsen’s lawyers have proposed a revised claim. And it proceeds to a new trial against the social media giant. Judge Marcus Smith said the case could be heard in “the first half of 2026 at the latest”.

A huge compensation is demanded

The plaintiffs demand compensation between $2.6 – 3.9 (£2.07 – 3.1) billion. If the court rules against Facebook, anyone in the UK with a Facebook account between February 2016 and October 2023 will get a portion of the money.

This could be one of the biggest lawsuits against Meta, and the tech firm could lose a pile of money in a data collection case. Similarly, in 2022, Facebook agreed to pay $725 million to settle the Cambridge Analytica scandal case.


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WhatsApp rolling out new text formatting features to everyone

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WhatsApp rolling out new text formatting features to everyone
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WhatsApp has been testing additional text formatting features for quite some time now. The last report involving this set of new features dates from January and included details about what new options WhatsApp users will eventually get if the app decided to give these the green light.

Thankfully, it looks like WhatsApp is done texting these new text formatting features, at least according to The Verge. No less than four new text formatting options are now rolling out to WhatsApp users on Android, iOS, Web, and Mac.

Starting today, WhatsApp users will be able to use block quotes, inline code, as well as bulleted and numbered lists. These new options are self-explanatory, but it’s worth noting that the inline code option allows users to highlight specific information in a wall of text. To actually enable inline code, you’ll have to wrap the text with the “’” symbol.

In addition to these four new options, WhatsApp offers four text formatting features: Bold, Italic, Strikethrough, and Monospace. Also, each of the new text formatting option has a shortcut to make use of it on the fly.


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