Tag: Telegram | Page 3

War and the app economy, Google’s Messages update, Telegram ‘TV’ – TechCrunch

March 12, 2022/in Mobile Security

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record number of downloads and consumer spending across both the iOS and Google Play stores combined in 2021, according to the latest year-end reports. Global spending across iOS, Google Play and third-party Android app stores in China grew 19% in 2021 to reach $170 billion. Downloads of apps also grew by 5%, reaching 230 billion in 2021, and mobile ad spend grew 23% year over year to reach $295 billion.

Today’s consumers now spend more time in apps than ever before — even topping the time they spend watching TV, in some cases. The average American watches 3.1 hours of TV per day, for example, but in 2021, they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device. And they’re not even the world’s heaviest mobile users. In markets like Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea, users surpassed five hours per day in mobile apps in 2021.

Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours, either. They can grow to become huge businesses. In 2021, 233 apps and games generated over $100 million in consumer spend, and 13 topped $1 billion in revenue. This was up 20% from 2020, when 193 apps and games topped $100 million in annual consumer spend, and just eight apps topped $1 billion.

This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place, with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and suggestions about new apps to try, too.

Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters

Russia’s app economy shuts down

Image Credits: Mika Baumeister / Unsplash

As the Russia-Ukraine war continued this week, the app ecosystem also saw further impacts. As businesses pulled out of Russia, the ability for Russian consumers to transact on the app stores and in apps is similarly being impacted. This week, Google announced it was suspending Google Play’s billing system for users in Russia in the “coming days,” which means Russian users won’t be able to purchase apps…

Source…

Fake Telegram apps are doing rounds that can hack your computer regardless of antivirus protection

January 4, 2022/in Computer Security

Fake Telegram apps are posing a huge threat to Windows users. It has been reported that the unauthentic version of the messaging app can hack your devices and put your information at risk. The cybersecurity researchers reported that the fake app has the ability to bypass antivirus systems

As per a report by Minerva Labs, fake installers of the Telegram app are being widely circulated on the Internet. It is reportedly being used to distribute Windows-based ‘Purple Fox’ backdoor on compromised systems.

“We found a large number of malicious installers delivering the same ‘Purple Fox’ rootkit version using the same attack chain. It seems like some were delivered via email, while others we assume were downloaded from phishing websites. The beauty of this attack is that every stage is separated into a different file which is useless without the entire file set. This helps the attacker protect his files from AV (antivirus) detection,” the researcher noted in the blog.

Purple Fox was first discovered in 2018. It is apparently one of the most malicious malware that can be planted in a system beyond the reach of security solutions and evade detection. Once it enters the system, it enables the backdoor to spread more rapidly. The security researcher revealed that such threat actors use legitimate software to drop malicious files.

“This time, however, is different. This threat actor was able to leave most parts of the attack under the radar by separating the attack into several small files, most of which had very low detection rates by AV engines, with the final stage leading to Purple Fox rootkit infection,” the researcher said.

It is advisable to download apps for legitimate places such as the Google Play Store or the Apple App Store. The apps carrying suspicious links should be avoided.

Watch Live TV in English

Watch Live TV in Hindi

Source…