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Personal data stolen from unsuspecting airport visitors and plane passengers in “evil twin” attacks, man charged

Malware

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

Personal data stolen from unsuspecting airport visitors and plane passengers in “evil twin” attacks, man charged

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The Australian Federal Police (AFP) have charged a man for setting up fake free WiFi access points in order to steal personal data from people.

The crime was discovered when an airline reported a suspicious WiFi network identified by its employees during a domestic flight. When the alleged perpetrator landed at Perth airport, his bags were searched and authorities found a portable wireless access device, a laptop, and a mobile phone in his hand luggage.

The police say that the man, 42, used a portable wireless access device to create ‘evil twin’ free WiFi networks; so called because criminals set up free WiFi access points that mimic the name of legitimate public WiFi networks.

When people tried to connect their devices to the free WiFi networks, they were taken to a fake webpage requiring them to sign in using their email or social media logins. Those details were then allegedly saved to the man’s devices.

The email and password details harvested could then be used to access more personal information, including bank accounts, emails and messages, photos and videos, and more.

AFP cybercrime investigators have identified data relating to the use of the alleged fraudulent WiFi pages at airports in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide, on domestic flights, and at locations linked to the man’s previous employment.

The investigation is ongoing but the man can expect to face nine charges for the alleged cybercrime offences.

‘Evil twin’ attacks are a type of “machine-in-the-middle” attack, where all traffic is routed through a server under the attacker’s control, giving them access to all of the submitted information.

Cybercriminals favour places where people expect to have free WiFi, such as airports, planes, coffee, shops, and libraries. The attacker finds the legitimate network name—known as the SSID (service set identifier)—and creates an access point with the same name.

Access points and wireless router networks broadcast their SSIDs to identify themselves, but the identifiers are not unique. Your device can connect to any SSID if the network has no security options enabled, and it will not be able to differentiate between the legitimate and the fake one.

Evil twin attacks are based on the fact that when two networks have the same SSID and security settings, your device will either connect to the one with the strongest signal or the one it sees first.

How to stay safe from evil twin attacks

There are a few things you can do to protect yourself against this kind of attack.

Firstly, do not allow your device to auto-connect to public or unsecure networks. See below on how to turn this off.
Look out for unexpected behavior. To connect to a free WiFi network, you shouldn’t have to enter any personal details—such as logging in through an email or social media account.
Install a trusted VPN to encrypt the traffic regardless of the network you are using, and even when you’re not visiting websites that HTTPS (Hypertext transfer protocol secure) which encrypts the traffic between a browser and the website.
And my personal favorite: Use your own personal hotspot. I use a portable 5G Mifi router, which provides me with reliable high-speed WiFi throughout my domestic journeys.

How to disable auto-connect

When you’re travelling it may be safer to disable auto-connect on Wi-Fi altogether.

On Android it works roughly like this (steps may be slightly different depending on your Android version, device type, and vendor):

Settings > Network & Internet (or Connections) > Wi-Fi > Wi-Fi preferences (or Advanced). Toggle off Connect to public networks.

On iOS you can disable auto-connect by doing this:

Settings > Wi-Fi. Tap the (i) next to the network name and then toggle off Auto-Join.

We don’t just report on threats – we help safeguard your entire digital identity

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Xiaomi MIX 5 to feature under-display camera & ceramic build

Android

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Xiaomi MIX 5 to feature under-display camera & ceramic build

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The Xiaomi MIX 5 sure sounds exciting based on the latest rumor. This information comes from Digital Chat Station, one of the best-known Chinese tipsters. He claims that the Xiaomi MIX 5 will not only include an under-display camera, but ceramic build too.

The Xiaomi MIX 5 is said to include an under-display camera & ceramic build

That is basically everything he shared, but it’s enough to get us excited. The sheer fact an under-display camera will be included is nice to hear. That means we won’t have to deal with a display camera hole.

It remains to be seen what selfies will look like. People who will aim to get this phone likely won’t care, at least not that much. That’s a tradeoff many are willing to make just to get rid of the display camera hole.

Ceramic, on the other hand, is a nice touch too. It will make the phone more premium and more scratch-resistant. There’s one downside, though, and that’s heft. The phone will be heavier than it would be with a glass build.

It will likely include the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 if it arrives in 2025

Now, a prototype of the Xiaomi MIX 5 was spotted a while back on Geekbench 6. The phone is codenamed ‘Suiren’, and the prototype included the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. That phone is not expected to arrive before 2025, so chances are it will have an upgraded SoC.

That is basically everything we know about the Xiaomi MIX 5 thus far. Not much information surfaced. We do expect Xiaomi to offer a really compelling design for this device, though, as was the case in the past.

We don’t even know when to expect this phone in 2025. No specific timeframe was given, and Xiaomi has its plate full of device launches as it is. In addition to its regular flagship smartphones, the company’s foldables are in focus now.

Xiaomi is expected to launch its first flip phone this year, in addition to introducing the Xiaomi MIX Fold 4. The Xiaomi 15 series is also coming this year, at least the Xiaomi 15 and Xiaomi 15 Pro models. The ‘Ultra’ variant will likely follow next year.

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Galaxy Unpacked billboards spark excitement for Z Flip 6, Z Fold 6

Tech

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Galaxy Unpacked billboards spark excitement for Z Flip 6, Z Fold 6

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If you have been following the latest tech coverage lately, then you probably know that Samsung is hosting its next Unpacked event on July 10. At the event, the South Korean tech giant is expected to unveil its next-generation of foldable smartphones – the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Galaxy Z Fold 6. Just a few days ahead of the event, the company has now sparked excitement around the new foldables with giant Galaxy Unpacked billboards.

Samsung is hyping upcoming products with massive Galaxy Unpacked billboards across the world

A little over a week ahead of the launch, Samsung has started hyping its upcoming products with massive Galaxy Unpacked billboards. The company has placed these giant digital advertising billboards in major markets across the world. The Galaxy Unpacked event’s billboards started displaying at prominent places in cities like New York, Dubai, London, Bangkok, Warsaw, Tokyo, and Seoul.

On the billboards, Samsung is hyping the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and Z Fold 6 foldable smartphones. The advertising panels are creating excitement around the event with the “Galaxy AI is Here” messaging. The upcoming foldable phones will flaunt the Galaxy AI features, which debuted on the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year. These advertising boards will appear in other cities as well before the event unfolds next week.

Samsung could also launch new earbuds, smartwatches, and the Galaxy Ring next week

Besides the new Galaxy Z series foldable phones, Samsung could also launch its new earbuds, smartwatches, and the Galaxy Ring. The brand is expected to unveil the Galaxy Buds 3 and the Buds 3 Pro as its next-gen audio products. In the smartwatch category, we expect the Galaxy Watch 7 and the Galaxy Watch 7 Ultra or Galaxy Watch Ultra.

The Galaxy Ring will be one of the biggest highlights of the upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event. The company already showcased the next-gen wearable device many times earlier this year. Now, it will finally commercially launch the product at the upcoming event. Ahead of the launch, the Galaxy Ring’s health features were leaked recently. It appears that the smart ring will share health features with the Galaxy Watch series devices.

Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event will take place in Paris, France on July 10, ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics. The event will be live-streamed on the company’s website. We will also bring you updates from the event, so stay tuned to Android Headlines for the latest coverage.

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New Snowblind Android Malware Emerges As A Potent Datastealer

Hacking

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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New Snowblind Android Malware Emerges As A Potent Datastealer

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Researchers discovered a new Android malware, “Snowblind”, running active campaigns since early 2024. This malware exhibits advanced capabilities to bypass security systems on the target devices and steal data.

Snowblind Android Malware Bypasses Security To Steal Data

Security firm Promon shared details about a recently spotted in their latest post, warning Android users. As revealed, their researchers discovered Snowblind, an Android malware, running active campaigns since the beginning of this year.

Specifically, the researchers noticed the malware targeting users in Southeast Asia. Describing its technicalities, the researchers stated that the malware targets Android apps based on the Linux kernel feature “seccomp”. This feature lets the Android system to sandbox applications and restrict the system calls they make.

While seccomp otherwise prevents attacks from malicious apps, Snowblind is different in that it exploits seccomp to attack apps. This enables the malware to bypass this major security feature and compromise apps. Next, it also evades anti-tampering checks as it repackages the target apps. For this, it adds an additional native library into the app, which loads prior to the anti-tampering code, thus bypassing the security check.

Ultimately, the malware gains persistence on the target device, targeting apps and manipulating system calls. It may even steal data from the device, including login credentials and financial information, and hijack user sessions.

The researchers have shared the following video demonstrating the Snowblind attack.

Users Must Remain Wary

Given that Snowblind’s attack strategy involving seccomp exploitation is relatively new, the researchers fear that not many antimalware solutions might have deployed adequate protection against the threat. Yet, given that they have deployed the protection mechanism within their own antimalware tool, users may expect to witness the same with the other security providers too.

Besides, users may easily avoid the threat by following security best practices. That includes downloading apps from official and trusted sources only, double-checking the developer information to verify the apps’ genuineness even when downloading from the Google Play Store, and equipping their devices with robust anti-malware solutions to prevent known threats.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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Pixel 9 to feature industry’s best OLED displays, better than Galaxy S24

Android

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Pixel 9 to feature industry’s best OLED displays, better than Galaxy S24

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For reasons best known to Google, the Pixel 9 series is set to launch two months earlier than the Pixel 8. The new Pixels will go official on August 13. Leaks have already revealed plenty about the upcoming Google phones, and there’s no stopping the leaks. A Korean news outlet just revealed an interesting piece of information about the Pixel 9’s display. The Samsung-made screens are allegedly better than the ones found on the Galaxy S24 series.

Google’s Pixel 9 has a better display than Samsung’s Galaxy S24

Like previous models, the Pixel 9 series will feature OLED displays made by Samsung (the Korean firm makes smartphone displays for many vendors, including Apple’s iPhones). It was expected to use the same OLED technology as the Galaxy S24, its latest flagship. However, according to the Korean publication ETnews, that isn’t the case. The new Pixels get an upgraded OLED display technology, making their screens technically better than the Samsung flagships.

The publication says the Pixel 9, Pixel 9 Pro, Pixel 9 Pro XL, and Pixel Fold 2 will all feature M14 OLED displays. The “M number” is an indicator of the quality of materials used in the display setup. The higher this value, the better is the screen in terms of brightness, longevity, efficiency, and overall quality. The Galaxy S24 series has M13 OLED screens, the most advanced smartphone display technology yet. The new Pixels will take things up a notch.

Theoretically, this upgrade means the Pixel 9’s screen would be brighter, more power efficient, and longer-lasting than the Galaxy S24. It’s not a massive gap, but an upgrade, nonetheless. Certainly not the biggest USP for the new Pixels, though. There are rumors of a camera hardware upgrade, but the biggest talking point could be Google’s AI features. The company is expected to introduce a wide range of on-device and cloud-based AI features. The whole industry is riding an AI train and Google can’t miss it. Stay tuned for more Pixel 9 leaks and rumors.

Apple’s next iPhones will also feature M14 OLED displays from Samsung

The publication adds that Samsung will supply M14 OLED displays to Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max later this year. The base iPhone 16 and the iPhone 16+, meanwhile, will feature two-generation-old M12 OLED screens. The new iPhones should arrive in September. Samsung’s next flagships, the Galaxy S25 series, will follow in January 2025, likely with M12 OLED screens. Or maybe the company will introduce something newer, time will tell.

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Time has also struck a deal with OpenAI

Tech

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Well, another one bites the dust… OpenAI is striking deals with companies to gain access to their content legally. Several major publications and parent companies are striking deals with OpenAI, and that worries a lot of the community. According to a new report, Time has just made a deal with OpenAI to grant the company more than a century’s worth of information.

We didn’t see this coming, but we kinda did. With the threat of AI looming over several industries, we thought the journalism industry would put up more of a fight. We assumed that The New York Times would be the flagship leading a fleet of companies against the march of AI. However, some HEAVY players have folded and made deals that serve up their content to ChatGPT on a silver platter.

These companies include The Associated Press, Axel Springer (owns Business Insider), News Corp, Vox Media (Owns The Verge), The Atlantic, and more. So, the New York Times is the black sheep of the group with its lawsuit.

Time just struck a multi-year deal with OpenAI

Another major player in the news industry has taken the money and ran, Time. This is a company that, on March 3rd this year, celebrated its 101st birthday. Since it made a deal, it will make all or most of its backlog of news available to OpenAI. Time is a company that’s been around long enough to report on the Great Depression and the Second World War. So, you know that it’s giving up a TON of data.

Deals like these involve money changing hands. For example, the deal with News Corp saw OpenAI paying it $250 million over five years. However, we don’t know how much money Time is getting for this deal and how long it’s going to last.

Spreading the love

This story isn’t all gray skies and spilled milk. According to Time, this isn’t a move to pad the company’s wallet. Time has been looking for a way to expose its content to a broader audience. It wants to spread it to a younger and more diverse reader base. That’s something that any publication would want to do.

As the deal goes, ChatGPT will be able to surface Time’s content in its responses. Along with that, ChatGPT will also post links back to the original article. So, this is a move that will, ostensibly, improve traffic to the site. Time gets a ton of traffic from Google, but with AI Overviews, the company might be looking for other avenues for traffic.

We’ll just have to see if people will actually want to go to the original source. Let’s not BS ourselves, most people go to ChatGPT to avoid going to different sources. Why read a whole article to find the answer to a question when the answer is given to you?

In any case, this is the way the world is going to operate, apparently. Let’s just hope that these companies know what they’re doing.

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Busted for book club? Why cops want to see what you’re reading, with Sarah Lamdan (Lock and Code S05E14)

Malware

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

0

Busted for book club? Why cops want to see what you’re reading, with Sarah Lamdan (Lock and Code S05E14)

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This week on the Lock and Code podcast…

More than 20 years ago, a law that the United States would eventually use to justify the warrantless collection of Americans’ phone call records actually started out as a warning sign against an entirely different target: Libraries.

Not two months after terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, Congress responded with the passage of The USA Patriot Act. Originally championed as a tool to fight terrorism, The Patriot Act, as introduced, allowed the FBI to request “any tangible things” from businesses, organizations, and people during investigations into alleged terrorist activity. Those “tangible things,” the law said, included “books, records, papers, documents, and other items.”

Or, to put it a different way: things you’d find in a library and records of the things you’d check out from a library. The concern around this language was so strong that this section of the USA Patriot Act got a new moniker amongst the public: “The library provision.”

The Patriot Act passed, and years later, the public was told that, all along, the US government wasn’t interested in library records.

But those government assurances are old.

What remains true is that libraries and librarians want to maintain the privacy of your records. And what also remains true is that the government looks anywhere it can for information to aid investigations into national security, terrorism, human trafficking, illegal immigration, and more.

What’s changed, however, is that companies that libraries have relied on for published materials and collections—Thomson Reuters, Reed Elsevier, Lexis Nexis—have reimagined themselves as big data companies. And they’ve lined up to provide newly collected data to the government, particularly to agencies like Immigrations and Customers Enforcement, or ICE.

There are many layers to this data web, and libraries are seemingly stuck in the middle.

Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host Davd Ruiz, we speak with Sarah Lamdan, deputy director Office of Intellectual Freedom at the American Library Association, about library privacy in the digital age, whether police are legitimately interested in what the public is reading, and how a small number of major publishing companies suddenly started aiding the work of government surveillance:

“Because to me, these companies were information providers. These companies were library vendors. They’re companies that we work with because they published science journals and they published court reporters. I did not know them as surveillance companies.”

Tune in today to listen to the full conversation.

Show notes and credits:

Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)

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Samsung to streamline Galaxy Tab S10 series to Plus & Ultra models

Android

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Samsung to streamline Galaxy Tab S10 series to Plus & Ultra models

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In May, we exclusively revealed the model numbers of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S10+ and Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra. The following month, we confirmed that the company had begun software development for the duo. We also gave you an exclusive first look at the Ultra model. All this while, there has been no talk about the base Galaxy Tab S10. Turns out it doesn’t exist. Samsung plans to release its next-gen flagship Android tablets in only two models.

Galaxy Tab S10 series tipped to come only in Plus and Ultra models

Samsung‘s last two generations of S series flagship tablets have come in three models. The company released a base model, a Plus model, and an Ultra mode of the Galaxy Tab S9 (2023) and Galaxy Tab S8 series (2022). The Galaxy Tab S7 series before that (in 2020) came in base and Plus models. It appears Samsung is returning to a dual-variant lineup with the Galaxy Tab S10 series. But this time around, it’s making Plus and Ultra models.

The information comes from the Korean media and corroborates our previous findings—we have yet to spot a base Galaxy Tab S10 in Samsung’s product pipeline. According to the new report, this is a strategic shift from the Korean firm to compete against Apple’s new iPads. This year, Apple switched to an OLED display for the iPad Pro, eliminating Samsung’s long-standing display tech superiority in the tablet market (it has made OLED tablets since 2014).

In response, the Korean conglomerate plans to take the fight to the screen size. It aims to differentiate its flagship tablets from Apple iPads with larger OLED screens. The Galaxy Tab S10+ will sport a 12.4-inch display, while the Ultra has a 14.6-inch OLED panel. The iPad Pro (2024) is available in 11-inch and 13-inch variants. This strategy seemingly made a base model with a 10.95-inch display redundant and Samsung decided to cancel it altogether.

A MediaTek chip is on the cards

Last month, the Galaxy Tab S10+ appeared on Geekbench running MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300+ flagship chipset. It appears it’s a deal done. The new report says Samsung is considering using the MediaTek processor on one or both new tablets in some markets. The tablets will get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in other markets. If true, this will be the first instance of a flagship Galaxy tablet featuring a MediaTek chipset. Maybe it’s a cost-cutting measure, we shall find out soon.

There are even rumors of Samsung considering equipping the Galaxy S25 phones with a MediaTek chip. The company is trying hard to reduce Snapdragon’s share in its products, likely because of successive major price hikes from Qualcomm. Time will tell how much truth is in these rumors. The Galaxy Tab S10 series is expected later this year, while the Galaxy S25 series will arrive in early 2025. Samsung is launching new foldables and watches on July 10.

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T-Mobile emerges king in latest Opensignal report

Tech

andreasc

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July 1, 2024

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Last week, Ookla released its latest intelligence report regarding the state of 5G services in the US. The report claimed that T-Mobile’s 5G services are still the fastest in the US. The telco achieved a median download speed of 287.14Mbps in March, surpassing Verizon and AT&T by a large margin. Now, another internet research firm, Opensignal, has compared the performance of all major US carriers.

In its report, Opensignal compared the three major US carriers in terms of user experience across as many as 15 categories. T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T were tested on four major metrics: overall experience, 5G experience, coverage, and consistency. The tests were conducted using the data collected between March 1 and May 29, 2024.

Opensignal declares T-Mobile as the winner after comparing all major US carriers on various metrics

Opensignal compared and rated all major US carriers in as many as 15 different categories. The firm declared T-Mobile as the winner in 9 of these categories. The telco emerged as the big winner in the contest and is said to offer the fastest overall experience on 5G networks. T-Mobile offered an average download speed of 139.3Mbps, three times higher than Verizon’s.

Furthermore, T-Mobile also scored the best when it comes to overall 5G availability. The report suggests that T-Mobile users who participated in the test now spend 67.9 percent of their time connected to 5G. It appears to be around six times higher than the runner-up, AT&T. The report also mentions that T-Mobile won Opensignal’s Consistent Quality award for the third consecutive time.

Verizon won awards in the best video, live video, online gaming, and upload speed categories

While T-Mobile was declared the overall winner in the report, Verizon won awards in various categories. The second-best telco on the report was declared the winner in the best video, live video, and online gaming categories. For all three aforementioned metrics, T-Mobile took second place and AT&T third.

In addition, Verizon is declared the clear winner when it comes to offering the best 5G upload speeds. The company offered an average 5G upload speed of 21.2Mbps. T-Mobile and AT&T, on the other hand, delivered 18.8Mbps and 14.1Mbps upload speeds, respectively.

That said, it looks like Verizon is slowly catching up to T-Mobile by improving its overall 5G experience. However, AT&T still has a lot of work to do if it wants to get anywhere closer to the two leading telcos.

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