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Technology
Airola DoT eSIM Google Holafly International SIMs Playstore SIMs India Technology

Google Removes Foreign eSIM Apps Airola and Holafly from PlayStore


Google has removed Airola and Holafly from its PlayStore for Indian users due to their sale of international SIM cards without the necessary authorizations.

The decision came from the department of telecommunications (DoT), which also contacted internet service providers to block access to both the apps’ websites.

Singapore-based Airalo and Spain-based Holafly are providers of eSIMs for a number of countries and regions. eSIMs are digital SIMs that enable users to activate a mobile plan with one’s network provider without using a physical SIM card. 

In India, a company require no objection certificate (NoC) from DoT to sell foreign SIM cards.

Apparently, DoT instructed Apple and Google to remove Holafly and Airalo from their apps because they lacked the necessary authorization or NoC.

The apps are now unavailable in Google PlayStore, however were found on Apple’s AppStore as of January 5.

According to a government source, Apple was in talks to remove the apps.

The apps are still accessible for users in other regions but have been blocked for Google and Apple users in India.

Rules for Selling International SIMs

Organizations that plan on selling SIM cards from other countries must obtain a NOC from the DoT. According to DoT's 2022 policy, these SIM cards provided to Indian customers are solely meant to be used abroad.

The authorized dealers will need to authenticate clients with copies of their passports, visas, and other supporting documentation before they sell or rent these SIMs.

Also, the SIM providers need to provide details of global SIMs to security agencies every month. 

Rules for Selling International SIMs in India/ Users can activate mobile plans using an eSIM in place of a physical SIM card. eSIMs are offered by Holafly and Airalo in a number of nations. Companies who intend to sell international SIM cards in India are required by DoT policy 2022 to obtain a NOC and to sell SIM cards only for use outside of the nation. Authorized merchants are required to use their passport, visa, and other necessary documents to confirm the identity of their consumers. These sellers also have to give security agencies regular updates on foreign SIMs.  

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Technology
Google Account Inactive Account Playstore Tech Giant Technology

Reminder: Google Has Started to Purge Inactive Accounts

 

You should log into any old Google account you wish to maintain if you haven't used it in a few years to avoid having it deleted due to Google's inactive account policy. Google revealed the new guidelines in May, stating that account deletions would start as early as December 2023. Since then, Google has begun notifying impacted users through email that their accounts may be deleted starting in the first week of December. 

To be clear, Google has not stated that it will delete all eligible accounts from the first of December.The company intends to proceed in stages, "beginning with accounts that were created and never used again." However, now appears to be as good a time as any to ensure that your old accounts are in order so that you don't risk losing important data.

For a Google Account to remain active for an additional two years, it is often sufficient to simply sign in. Google adds that actions that fall under its policy regarding inactive accounts include sending or receiving emails, using Google Drive, viewing YouTube content, downloading apps from the Google Play Store, searching the Google Play Store, and signing in with Google to access third-party services. 

It's a good idea to confirm that the email address linked to your account is accessible after you log in. This is due to Google's announcement that it will notify affected users of an upcoming deletion through several notifications sent to both their recovery email addresses and affected Google accounts. 

If you want to prevent the deletion of any content stored in Google Photos, you'll need to sign in separately, but logging in to your Google account should be sufficient to stop it from being deleted altogether for two years. According to a 2020 policy, the search giant "reserves the right to delete data in a product if you are inactive in that product for at least two years." Nevertheless, neither accounts with active subscriptions linked to them nor accounts with YouTube videos will be deleted. 

Google stated that it modified its policies for security reasons when it announced the new guidelines in May, pointing out that inactive and outdated accounts are more likely to be compromised. Ruth Kricheli, vice president of product management at Google, stated in the company blog that "forgotten or unattended accounts often rely on old or re-used passwords that may have been compromised, haven't had two factor authentication set up, and receive fewer security checks by the user.”
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Playstore
Android Android Phone Android Users Fake Apps Mobile Security Playstore

Alert: Android Users Should Delete These 151 Apps Immediately

 

A total of 151 scam applications have been identified and deleted from the Google Play Store, but Android users should double-check that none of them is installed.

Avast, a cybersecurity software company, has detected a massive premium SMS fraud running on the official Google Play Store, according to BGR. It's been termed the UltimaSMS campaign by Avast (because the first scam software uncovered during the investigation was Ultima Keyboard 3D Pro), and it's made up of 151 fraudulent applications that have been downloaded over 10.5 million times in over 80 countries. 

Custom keyboards, QR code scanners, video and photo editors, spam call blockers, camera filters, and games are just some of the applications that are disguised as legitimate tools. However, they all have the same goal in mind: to sign users up for premium SMS services. 

Every app follows the same methodology: The area code and language to use are determined by checking the phone's location, International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI), and phone number once it has been installed. Prompts then ask for the user's phone number and, in some instances, their email address. 

This information is then utilised to sign them up for premium SMS services without the user's knowledge. The charges are typical $40 or more each month, and users may not be aware of them for weeks or months. Once an UltimaSMS app has reached its objective, it often stops running or advertises more subscription choices instead of the promised features. The concern is that premium subscriptions will continue to deduct money from users' accounts even if they remove the app. 

Avast compiled a list of all 151 applications involved in the fraud and every Android user should examine it. If anyone has any of these applications installed (or have had them installed in the past), uninstall them immediately. 

However, if anyone notices any unexpected charges, examine the statements and contact the carrier. If users wish to avoid this sort of fraud in the future, then should ask their carrier to disable premium SMS options on the account.
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xHelper
Android Google malware Playstore xHelper

Users can now remove xHelper, the irremovable malware


Hooray! You can now remove the unremovable android malware. Yes, it is xHelper, the unremovable android malware. After 10 months of research and hard work, the cybersecurity experts have finally found a way to remove xHelper from your smartphones, which was not possible earlier. According to cybersecurity experts, the method is reliable and effective.


What is xHelper?
xHelper caused a lot of troubles across the globe to android users for a very long time, 10 months to be specific. It first appeared in March last year, when smartphone users complained about the malware came on the internet that certain apps couldn't be uninstalled from their smartphones, even though the users did a factory reset. Though the apps were not malicious or harmful, they, however, sent annoying ads or popups to the users all the time. As time passed, xHelper kept on targeting more and more devices until it was spread almost everywhere around the world. Last year, until August, xHelper infected merely 32000 smartphones, but by the end of October, the numbers climbed up to 45,000. Malwarebytes and Symantec, both a cybersecurity company, published this information in their reports.

How it spread? 
Cybersecurity experts say that the malware redirected the users to android hosting websites, and this is how the malware spread. These websites allowed users to download apps from them, without the user needing to go to the play store. However, the apps contained hidden HTML coding that released the malware in the smartphones once downloaded. Finding the source of the malware and how it spread was easy, however, the cybersecurity experts had trouble removing it through traditional methods like factory resets or uninstalling the xHelper app. Even after the factory resets, the malware would reappear by itself after some time, installing the app by itself without asking the user permissions.

How to remove xHelper?
According to Collier, users can follow these 6 steps to remove xHelper from their smartphones:

  1. Install a file manager application from the google play store. The app should be able to find directories and search files. 
  2. Disable Google play store (temporarily)
  3.  Run a scan in the Malwarebytes. Try searching for fireway, xHelper, and settings (in case 2 settings are shown) 
  4. In the file manager, search for com.mufc. 
  5. If the file manager shows results, sort the result by 'date found.' Delete anything with com.mufc. 
  6. Enable google play after doing the necessary changes.
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