Tag Archive for: Phone

How to Remove Malware and Viruses From Your Android Phone


Just like your computer, your Android phone can fall victim to viruses and malware. These infections can slow your system down and create glitches that make it difficult to use your phone. Whether you’ve downloaded an infected app or visited a corrupted website, you have to stop it fast to protect your phone.

Fortunately, there are steps you can take to scan your phone and remove malware and viruses from your Android phone:

  1. If you think you know which app is causing you problems, you can head over to Settings> Apps, and delete it. We recommend working Safe mode while you do your investigating to prevent further problems.
  2. Alternatively, if you’re not sure which app is causing you issues, it’s time to download and install an antivirus (aka anti-malware) app that can help scan and clean your phone of viruses.

Read on as we describe these methods in detail and provide you with a detailed look at how viruses end up on your phone in the first place.

How to remove malware and viruses

The first step is to removing malware from your Android phone is to actually find it. We’ll walk you through how to do that, then we’ll give you some options for protection, as well as suggest antivirus apps you can use to restore your phone’s health and keep it safe in future.

Step 1: Shut down until you find out the specifics.

Once you’re sure your phone is under attack by malware, hold the power button down and turn the phone fully off. It may not stop the malware from causing damage, but it can stop the problem from getting worse, and may halt ongoing malware attempts to access nearby networks.

Shutting down also gives you time to think and research. Do you know the specific infected app that brought malware onto your device? Do you know what other types of software it may have downloaded without your consent? If not, then move to another computer and look up your symptoms (as well as any new apps you tried out) to narrow down the issue. If you can’t find the app at the root of the problem, you can’t remove it.

If your research turns up nothing, you may want to turn your phone back on and skip down to step five. Anti-malware apps can help identify what…

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Jaw-Dropping New Hack Turns Your Phone Screen Into Covert Spy Camera


In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have revealed how hackers can turn your smartphone into a spying device akin to the TV screens featured in Orwell’s 1984.

The paper, Imaging privacy threats from an ambient light sensor, reveals how seemingly harmless ambient light sensors, used in most smartphones to auto-adjust screen brightness, are capable of covertly capturing user interactions thanks to a newly developed computational imaging algorithm.

How Smartphone Screens, Not Cameras, Can Spy On Users

I have written plenty of articles covering how seemingly innocuous items can be used to spy on users and create a security threat that one might not ordinarily imagine. Forget the more obvious targets for such stories as smart speakers, and think more about light bulbs and vacuum cleaners, both of which have been subject to research regarding covert surveillance techniques.

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More than a hint of 1984 shines through the research by Yang Liu, Gregory W. Wornell, William T. Freeman and Fredo Durand. Instead of Big Brother keeping tabs on citizens through enormous TV screens everywhere, the researchers talk of how hackers could covertly capture user gestures through the small screens we carry everywhere: smartphones.

More precisely, the researchers focus on the ambient light sensors that enable our smartphones to adjust screen brightness to match our environment. Apps can use ambient light sensors without the need to ask permission from the user. The lack of permission control is not exactly surprising, given that such sensors have not been considered a privacy or security risk. Until now.

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Novel Smartphone Security Risk Revealed By MIT Researchers

“The ambient light sensor needs to be always on for functionality and is…

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Centre issues high-risk warning for Samsung Galaxy phone users, here’s why


The Union government has issued a new advisory for all the Samsung Galaxy mobile phone users, asking them to immediately update their security systems and operating system (OS) to protect themselves from cyber attacks and hacking.

CERT has issued a high risk warning for Samsung users (Shutterstock)

The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) has issued the high-risk security advisory on December 13, highlighting several security impacts on millions of Samsung Galaxy phones, with both newer and older models.

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The category of concern for Samsung phones is “high-risk”, according to the advisory, and owners of these phones need to update their firmware of OS at the earliest.

CERT said in its notification, “Multiple vulnerabilities have been reported in Samsung products that could allow an attacker to bypass implemented security restrictions, access sensitive information, and execute arbitrary code on the targeted system.”

The agency said that the risk in these phones is due to the improper access control flaw in the SmartManagerCN component of the OS. The solution to this is to apply appropriate security updates in your Samsung Galaxy phones, as mentioned by the company.

What could happen if you don’t follow CERT advisory?

Samsung Galaxy phone owners could be subjected to several risks if they don’t update their security and OS, as directed by CERT-In. Here are some vulnerabilities highlighted in the advisory by the government.

  • Steal phone’s secret code (SIM PIN)
  • Shout loud commands to phone (broadcast with elevated privilege)
  • Peek into private AR Emoji files
  • Change the clock on the castle gate (Knox Guard lock)
  • Snoop around phone’s files (access arbitrary files)
  • Steal important information (sensitive information)
  • Control the phone like a puppet (execute arbitrary code)

– Take over the whole phone (compromise the targeted system)

Further, Samsung has issued instructions for all the users to make sure that they remain safe from these…

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Ukraine faces second day of huge phone and internet outage after suspected Russian cyberattack


Ukraine on Wednesday entered the second day of limited communications after its largest mobile phone and internet provider was hit by a huge cyberattack, Ukrainian officials and the internet provider said Wednesday.

The company, Kyivstar, shut down all mobile and internet service Tuesday after experiencing what its CEO said was a Russian cyberattack.

The Kyivstar hack is one of the biggest cyberattacks on the civilian telecommunications industry in history, and one of the most influential of the Russia-Ukraine war. Kyivstar’s website is still inaccessible, but an archived version of it from November said it has more than 25 million customers nationwide, more than half the country’s population.

Kyivstar announced Wednesday it had begun to restore service, but Kentik, a company that tracks global internet connectivity, said Kyivstar was operating at a fraction of its normal traffic levels.

In addition to cutting off communications for millions of Ukrainians, the Kyivstar attack resulted in other critical services shutting down.

The head of Kyiv’s Regional Military Administration, Ruslan Kravchenko, said on Telegram that the outage disrupted air alert systems in multiple cities, forcing authorities to use backup alarms. Russia launched a missile attack Wednesday morning, Kyiv’s mayor said on his Telegram channel, resulting in 53 people being injured and 20 being hospitalized.

Ukraine’s largest bank, PrivatBank, announced that a lack of functioning internet connection had resulted in some ATMs and point-of-sale terminals not working.

In the city of Liviv, which uses internet-connected smart streetlights, the Kyivstar outage meant that the lights had to be disconnected manually, the City Council said on its website.

Ukrainian authorities, including communications officials and representatives from the Security Service of Ukraine, indicated in emailed statements Wednesday that the culprit was a unit within Russian military intelligence, the GRU, that Western governments and cybersecurity researchers have said is responsible for previous destructive attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure. Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Both the Security…

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