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Showing posts with label Google Apps. Show all posts
User Privacy
2FA Data Breach Digital Age Gmail Google Google Apps Google Photos User Privacy

Safeguard Your Data: Google's Data Purge Approaches

Google just announced that the time is running out on a massive cleanup of defunct Gmail accounts and content from Google Photos, which is scheduled to start on December 1. Many consumers can be taken aback by this action, which is intended to manage and streamline user data. Take quick action to make sure your important data isn't lost in the cleanse.

The data purge involves Google identifying and deleting data from accounts that have been inactive for an extended period. This includes Gmail messages, attachments, and Google Photos content. The goal is to free up storage space and enhance overall system efficiency.

Several major news outlets, including Forbes, CBS News, Business Insider, and Yahoo News, have covered this impending data purge, emphasizing the urgency for users to safeguard their digital assets.

Google's initiative raises concerns for users who may have overlooked the significance of their inactive accounts. If you've been using Gmail or Google Photos but have not actively engaged with these services, now is the time to reassess and secure your data.

To prevent the loss of your digital memories and crucial information, follow these steps:
  • Access Your Accounts: Log in to your Gmail and Google Photos accounts to ensure they are active and accessible. This alone can exempt your data from the impending purge.
  • Review and Save Important Data: Take the opportunity to review your emails and photos. Save any crucial information or memorable moments to a secure location, such as an external hard drive or cloud storage.
  • Update Account Information: Confirm that your account recovery information, including your phone number and email address, is up to date. This ensures you can recover your account if needed.
  • Enable Two-Factor Authentication: Strengthen the security of your Google accounts by enabling two-factor authentication. This adds an extra layer of protection, making it harder for unauthorized individuals to access your data.
These preventative measures will help you get through Google's data purge without losing important information. We need to be aware of any developments that could affect our digital assets since we are depending more and more on digital platforms to store and share our memories and information. To secure your data before it's too late, take action right away.


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Kaspersky
App security Cyber Crime Cybercrime Actors Darknet Markets Google Apps Google Play Google Play Threats Kaspersky

Cybercriminals Set Android Apps For Sale for Up to $20K a Piece


Cyber threat actors have lately been targeting the official Google Play app store’s security by developing trojan malwares for existing Android apps, selling the malwares for up to $20,000 a piece on darknet markets. 

In a blog post published on April 10, Kaspersky researchers reported their findings of a thorough analysis of nine of the most well-known Dark Web forums. They discovered a booming market of buyers and sellers exchanging access to botnets, malicious Android applications, and app developer accounts for hundreds of dollars at a time by monitoring activities between 2019 and 2023. 

Some highly valuable products, such as source code that can let a threat actor hack into an existing cryptocurrency or a dating app on Google Play can cost several thousand dollars. 

"It's an infinite cat and mouse game[…]The attackers find a way to bypass security scanners. Then the people developing the security scanners deploy patches to ensure that doesn't happen again. Then the attackers find new flaws. And it goes on and on," says Georgy Kucherin, Kaspersky research with regards to Google’s app security. 

The Marketplace for Google Play Hacks 

Any program that is posted to the Apple or Google app stores undergoes a rigorous inspection. However, according to the Kaspersky researchers “just like any security solution that exists in the world, it's not 100% effective[…]Every scanner contains flaws that threat actors exploit to upload malware to Google Play." 

Commonly, there are two methods by with a hacker attempts to sneak malware onto an app store: 

  • The first method entails publishing a completely safe software to the app store. If it has been approved, or even better, if it has attracted a sizable enough audience, hackers will submit an update that contains the malicious code. 
  • The second involves hackers compromising legitimate app developers, accessing their accounts to upload malware to already-existing programs. With no two-factor authentication and strong password restrictions in place, app developer accounts are more vulnerable to hacking. Credential leaks occasionally enable hackers to accomplish the majority of their goals by giving them access to important company development systems and accounts. 

Moreover, depending on the developer, access to a Google Play account may only cost as little as $60, depending on the developer. However, other, more beneficial accounts, resources, and services have significantly greater costs. 

For example, considering the power they hold, loaders — the software necessary to deploy malicious code into an Android app — can cost big bucks on the darknet markets, ranging up to a whopping $5,000 each for an instance. 

A well-resourced criminal could well go with a premium package, like the source code for a loader. 

 "You can do whatever you want with that — deploy it to as many apps as you want[…]You can modify the code as much as you want, adapting it to your needs. And the original developer of the code may even provide support, like updates for the code, and maybe new ways to bypass security measures," Kucherin explains. 

How Can a Company Protect Itself from Google Play Threats 

The threats posed by Google Play are a cause of great concern to organizations, especially the ones with feeble enterprise security. Kucherin notes that many businesses still have lax bring-your-own-device arrangements in place, which extend the security perimeter outside of corporate networks and right into the hands of its employees. 

"Say an employee installs a malicious app on the phone[…]If this app turns out to be a stealer, cybercriminals can get access to, for example, corporate emails or sensitive corporate data, then they can upload it to their servers and sell it on the Dark Web. Or even worse: An employee might keep their passwords in, for example, their phone's notes app. Then hackers can steal those notes and get access to corporate infrastructure," he explains. 

In order to prevent such severe outcomes, Kucherin suggests two simple precautionary measures: 

One, you can teach the employees cyber-hygiene principles, like not downloading apps that are not trusted. However, this might not suffice, so "another thing you can do — though it's more expensive — is give your employees a separate phone, which they will use only for purposes of work. Those devices will contain a limited number of apps — just the essentials like email, phone, no other apps allowed,” he adds. 

Just as it is for the cybercriminals, you have to pay more to get more, he notes: "Using dedicated work devices is more effective, but more expensive."  

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Privacy
Android Bluetooth Hackers Google Apps Google Play Protect Malicious actor Phishing Attacks Privacy

Google Play Protect Shields Users From Cyberattacks


The leading Android devices all use Google Play Services as a key component. It serves as a link between the Android OS and programs, mostly Google programs and programs from other developers that make use of Google authentication, cloud services, and Game Dashboard.

You could use an Android app that protects users from severe cyberattacks and operates through the official Google Play store called Google Play Protect.

According to a security notice from Google, "Google Play Protect removes apps that have been marked as potentially hazardous because the app actually contains malicious behavior, not only because we are unsure if the app is harmful or not."

Before allowing you to download an app, the feature verifies its security. To deceive users into manually installing the infected files, some of these malicious sites invite victims to download phoney security tools or upgrades.

Four malicious apps were detected by research:
  • Bluetooth App Sender
  • Bluetooth Auto Connect
  • Driver: Bluetooth, USB, Wi-Fi
  • Mobile Transfer: smart switch
More than a million people have downloaded all of the applications together, and they invite a significant danger of identity theft and scams.

"These apps offer capabilities that consumers desire, such as device rooting and other developer features. Users knowingly install these potentially hazardous apps," as per Google.

Essentially Google Play Protect will initially issue a warning about the app's possible dangers when a user starts to install an app that Google has categorized as 'user-wanted.'  Google will not send any more warnings if the user decides to install the program anyhow.

Main functions of Google Play Protect:
  • Verifies the security of downloaded programs from the Google Play store.
  • Detects potentially hazardous programs outside the Google Play store.
  • Warns you about hazardous applications.
  • Removes or disables unwanted applications.
  • Alerts you to apps that break the rules by hiding or making false representations of themselves.
  • Sends you privacy alerts about applications that may request access to your personal information.
  • To protect your privacy, reset your app's permissions.
Google stated in its security note that "after installation, the user-wanted classifications restrict Google Play Protect from delivering additional warnings, so there is no disturbance to the user experience."

The Google Play Services platform also enables Google to push Project Mainline modules, allowing your device to receive security upgrades without having to wait for the producer to release them.
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Google Apps
Credit Card Theft Cyber Fraud Fraudsters Google Apps

Fraudsters are Exploiting Google Apps to Steal Credit Card Details

 

Threat actors are using a novel approach to steal the credit card details of e-commerce shoppers by exploiting Google’s Apps Script business application platform. Threat actors are abusing Google Apps Script domain ‘script.google.com’ to hide their malicious activities from malware scan engines and evade Content Security Policy (CSP) controls.

Eric Brandel, a cybersecurity researcher unearthed the scam while analyzing Early Breach Detection data provided by Sansec, a cybersecurity firm focused on fighting digital skimming. Brandel explained that threat actors bank on the fact that the majority of the online stores would have whitelisted all Google subdomains in their respective CSP configuration (a security protocol for blocking suspicious code execution in web apps). They take advantage of this trust and abuse the App script domain to route the stolen data to a server under their possession. 

Once, the malicious script was injected by the fraudsters in the e-commerce site, all the payment details stolen from the exploited e-commerce site were transferred as base64 encoded JSON data to a Google Apps Script custom app, using script.google.com as an exfiltration endpoint. Then, the stolen data was transferred to another server - Israel-based site analit. tech – handled by fraudsters.

Sansec stated that “the malware domain analit[.]tech was registered on the same day as previously discovered malware domains hotjar[.]host and pixelm[.]tech, who are hosted on the same network.” Google services such as Google Forms and Google Sheets are also exploited in the past by FIN7 cybercriminal gang for malware command-and-control communications. This gang has targeted banks and point-of-sale (POS) terminals EU and US firms using the Carbanak backdoor.

“Typically, a digital skimmer (aka Magecart) runs on dodgy servers in tax havens, and its location reveals its nefarious intent. But when a skimming campaign runs entirely on trusted Google servers, very few security systems will flag it as ‘suspicious’. And more importantly, popular countermeasures like Content-Security-Policy (CSP) will not work when a site administrator trusts Google”, Sansec explained the workings of the fraudsters.
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