Cheapskate Android smartphone owners, beware: a malicious program posing as a free version of a legitimate app is out to expose the downloader's folly.
Security software maker Symantec said "Android.Walkinwat" is the first such threat of its kind discovered in the wild for the mobile landscape.
"Hey, just downlaoded a pirated App off the Internet, Walk and Text for Android. Im stupid and cheap,it costed only 1 buck.Don't steal like I did!" reads a grammatical-error-filled text message the app will attempt to send to everyone in the address book of the victim's phone.
According to Symantec, the rogue application presents itself as a fake version (1.3.7) of "Walk and Text," a legitimate application that uses the Android device's camera to let people see what is in front of them as they text while walking.
Stealing sensitive info
Symantec also said that the malicious app was discovered March 30, and can steal sensitive information from the compromised device.
The company said that the app can be found on file-sharing websites throughout North America and Asia.
"One could make the case that this app was intentionally spread in these regions by the creators of the threat in order to maximize the download prevalence and convey their message to as large an audience as possible, however one could also make the case the creator of Android.Walkinwat is attempting to undermine the publisher of Walk and Text," it said.
The legitimate version of the app on the Android market costs P66.79.
"Walk and Text - see what is going on in front of you on the road while walking and typing or down stairs. Type and Walk without fear!" read the summary of the software on the Android Market.
'Cracking'
Once the app is run, it displays a dialog box that indicates the app is being compromised or cracked.
But it is in reality gathering and attempting to send back sensitive data such as name, phone number and IMEI information to an external server.
The app also sends the SMS message to all contacts in the phone's contact list.
"Interestingly enough, the Trojan performs the above set of actions in a routine of Android.Walkinwat called “LicenseCheck", something traditionally used by legitimate apps for license management in conjunction with a Licensing Verification Library available for the Android platform to help prevent piracy. The authors of the malicious code have taken an extra step to make sure that their app was obfuscated, which is another recommended measure to prevent piracy," Symantec said.
The app then concludes with a final message to the user, and provides the user an option to buy the legitimate version from the Android App Market.
"We really hope you learned something from this. Check your phone bill;) Oh and dont forget to buy the App from the Market," it said.
"Although this isn’t the first case of disciplinary justice being used as means to send a message against piracy, this is the first of its kind discovered on the mobile landscape," Symantec said. — TJD, GMA News
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Facebook photos swiped for dating website
SAN FRANCISCO - Hacking and art mixed on Friday in a freshly-launched dating website that lets visitors seek mates by sifting through profile pictures mined from Facebook.
Lovely-faces.com boasted Facebook pictures of about 250,000 people searchable in categories that included nationality, gender, funny, smug, and "climber."
The creators of the online "dating agency" were identified at the website as artists Paolo Cirio and Alessandro Ludovic.
'Our mission was to give all these virtual identities a new shared place to expose themselves freely, breaking Facebook's constraints and boring social rules," the website authors said in an online statement datelined in Berlin.
The artists explained that a million "stolen" Facebook profile pictures were analyzed using facial recognition software that filtered images by expressions.
"Immersing ourselves in the resulting database was a hallucinatory experience as we dove into hundreds of thousands of profile pictures and found ourselves intoxicated by the endless smiles, gazes and often leering expressions," the artists said.
"So we established a new website (lovely-faces.com) giving them justice and granting them the possibility of soon being face to face with anybody who is attracted by their facial expression and related data."
Facebook frowned on lovely-faces, saying that "scraping" or mining information violates the terms of service at the world's leading online social network. Facebook was investigating and vowed to take "appropriate" action.
Ironically, the story of Facebook's genesis tells of its founder Mark Zuckerberg getting in trouble for hacking Harvard University computers while a student to get pictures of coeds for comparison with each other at a website called "Face Mash" that he created.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Nintendo nine-month net profit tumbles 74 percent
TOKYO — Nintendo's nine-month profit tumbled 74 percent as weaker sales of the Wii console and a strong yen battered its bottom line.
The lackluster results announced Thursday led the creator of the Super Mario franchise to slash sales expectations for its video game devices.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a net profit of 49.56 billion yen ($603 million) for the nine months through Dec. 31. The company did not break down quarterly numbers.
It posted a 192.6 billion yen profit for the same nine-month period a year earlier.
Sales dropped 32 percent to 808 billion yen, while operating profit fell 47 percent to 158.8 billion yen.
While holiday sales were "robust," the numbers fell short of the US sales record set by the Wii and the DS handheld system the previous year, the company said. It also blamed the strong yen for 84.4 billion yen in exchange rate losses.
Nintendo now says it will sell 16 million Wii consoles in the fiscal year through March 31. That's 1.5 million fewer than it predicted in its previous forecast. It cut its sales estimate for the DS by 1 million to 22.5 million units.
The company left its earnings forecasts unchanged. It continues to expect net profit to fall more than 60 percent to 90 billion yen on revenue of 1.1 trillion yen.
Nintendo is banking on the 3DS to propel sales and help the company regain momentum. The glasses-free handheld 3-D device is being billed by Nintendo as a unique experience not found anywhere else.
It goes on sale Feb. 26 in Japan for a suggested retail price of 25,000 yen ($304). Sales in the US begin on March 27 for $250 — the same price the revolutionary Wii console cost when it launched in 2006.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told the Nikkei financial daily earlier this month that his company plans to ship about 1.5 million units of the 3DS in Japan in the first month. — AP
The lackluster results announced Thursday led the creator of the Super Mario franchise to slash sales expectations for its video game devices.
Kyoto-based Nintendo Co. reported a net profit of 49.56 billion yen ($603 million) for the nine months through Dec. 31. The company did not break down quarterly numbers.
It posted a 192.6 billion yen profit for the same nine-month period a year earlier.
Sales dropped 32 percent to 808 billion yen, while operating profit fell 47 percent to 158.8 billion yen.
While holiday sales were "robust," the numbers fell short of the US sales record set by the Wii and the DS handheld system the previous year, the company said. It also blamed the strong yen for 84.4 billion yen in exchange rate losses.
Nintendo now says it will sell 16 million Wii consoles in the fiscal year through March 31. That's 1.5 million fewer than it predicted in its previous forecast. It cut its sales estimate for the DS by 1 million to 22.5 million units.
The company left its earnings forecasts unchanged. It continues to expect net profit to fall more than 60 percent to 90 billion yen on revenue of 1.1 trillion yen.
Nintendo is banking on the 3DS to propel sales and help the company regain momentum. The glasses-free handheld 3-D device is being billed by Nintendo as a unique experience not found anywhere else.
It goes on sale Feb. 26 in Japan for a suggested retail price of 25,000 yen ($304). Sales in the US begin on March 27 for $250 — the same price the revolutionary Wii console cost when it launched in 2006.
Nintendo President Satoru Iwata told the Nikkei financial daily earlier this month that his company plans to ship about 1.5 million units of the 3DS in Japan in the first month. — AP
Sony to release new PlayStation Portable this year
TOKYO — Sony says an upgraded version of its PlayStation Portable machine will go on sale late this year.
Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony Corp.'s gaming section, made the announcement at a Tokyo hotel Thursday. He did not give a price, regional release plans, or other details of the machine called NGP, short for "next generation portable."
The new machine promises to offer on a portable the same image quality and other features now offered on home consoles like Sony's PlayStation 3. — AP
Kazuo Hirai, who heads Sony Corp.'s gaming section, made the announcement at a Tokyo hotel Thursday. He did not give a price, regional release plans, or other details of the machine called NGP, short for "next generation portable."
The new machine promises to offer on a portable the same image quality and other features now offered on home consoles like Sony's PlayStation 3. — AP
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Twitter 2011 ad revenue estimated at $150 million
WASHINGTON - Microblogging sensation Twitter is expected to rake in $150 million in advertising revenue this year, according to a study published Monday.
The study, by digital research firm eMarketer, said ad spending on Twitter in 2010 was an estimated $45 million, would rise to $150 million this year and could reach $250 million by 2012.
"One reason for the dramatic growth forecast this year is the upcoming launch of a self-serve ad platform," such as that used by Google and Facebook, eMarketer said.
"Twitter is poised to go after the same performance advertising business that has funded much of Facebook's growth," said eMarketer principal analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
"If Twitter can grow its user base and convince marketers of its value as a go-to secondary player to Facebook, it will succeed in gaining revenue."
Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo said earlier this month that an advertising program implemented last year that involves paid-for "promoted tweets" was working "fantastically well."
"It's a big enough business for us to be an independent company," he said.
Costolo also said that Twitter, which has fended off several buyers, intends to remain an independent company and is not considering going public.
Twitter last month received an injection of $200 million in funding from investors to help fuel its growth, reportedly giving the San Francisco-based company a valuation of $3.7 billion.
"Our business plan is to continue to raise money," Costolo joked.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Lenovo creates separate unit for tablets, phones
SAN FRANCISCO — Lenovo Group, the world's fourth-largest personal computer maker, expects the market for tablet computers and other mobile and Internet-connected devices to expand so rapidly that it is creating a product group devoted solely to these products.
The company, which is based in Beijing and has US headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, said Tuesday that its new mobile Internet and digital home division will focus on creating tablets, smart phones and Web-connected home electronics, such as television sets.
Given the enormous popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPad, which was released last April, analysts expect tablet sales to jump this year. Technology research firm Gartner Inc. expects that 55 million tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.
The iPad wasn't the first tablet to hit the market — Lenovo and others have long offered laptops with swiveling screens that can also function as tablets, for example. But with its sleek design, focus on multimedia and price tag that can be as low as $499, the iPad was the first that managed to catch on with consumers. Now, major names including Lenovo, Motorola Mobility Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are releasing their own tablets with expectations that the category will finally take off this year.
Plenty of these were on display earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They include one from Lenovo, called the LePad, that runs Google Inc.'s Android operating software. When combined with a keyboard dock, the tablet becomes a laptop computer running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7 PC software. The LePad and dock — the combo is called the IdeaPad U1 — are set to roll out in China during the first quarter; Lenovo has not said if and when the product will come to the US.
Lenovo's new unit will be headed by Liu Jun, who has been responsible for product development as the head of Lenovo's product group. Peter Hortensius, who had run the company's Think product group, is taking Jun's old post.
Hortensius said Friday that the company decided to split tablets, smart phones and other Web-centric mobile and home devices into their own group so there is a clear focus on these electronics at Lenovo's senior level. The products seem different enough from PCs that it is worth focusing on them separately, he said.
In the US, consumers will mostly see tablets coming out of this business unit at first, he said.
While the iPad was the first to crack the tablet code with consumers, Lenovo, like many other companies, is confident that there's room for other tablets, too. Hortensius expects there to be a "lot of winners and losers" in the market this year.
"This is definitely going to be a very important year in tablets," he said. — AP
The company, which is based in Beijing and has US headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina, said Tuesday that its new mobile Internet and digital home division will focus on creating tablets, smart phones and Web-connected home electronics, such as television sets.
Given the enormous popularity of Apple Inc.'s iPad, which was released last April, analysts expect tablet sales to jump this year. Technology research firm Gartner Inc. expects that 55 million tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.
The iPad wasn't the first tablet to hit the market — Lenovo and others have long offered laptops with swiveling screens that can also function as tablets, for example. But with its sleek design, focus on multimedia and price tag that can be as low as $499, the iPad was the first that managed to catch on with consumers. Now, major names including Lenovo, Motorola Mobility Inc. and Toshiba Corp. are releasing their own tablets with expectations that the category will finally take off this year.
Plenty of these were on display earlier this month at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. They include one from Lenovo, called the LePad, that runs Google Inc.'s Android operating software. When combined with a keyboard dock, the tablet becomes a laptop computer running Microsoft Corp.'s Windows 7 PC software. The LePad and dock — the combo is called the IdeaPad U1 — are set to roll out in China during the first quarter; Lenovo has not said if and when the product will come to the US.
Lenovo's new unit will be headed by Liu Jun, who has been responsible for product development as the head of Lenovo's product group. Peter Hortensius, who had run the company's Think product group, is taking Jun's old post.
Hortensius said Friday that the company decided to split tablets, smart phones and other Web-centric mobile and home devices into their own group so there is a clear focus on these electronics at Lenovo's senior level. The products seem different enough from PCs that it is worth focusing on them separately, he said.
In the US, consumers will mostly see tablets coming out of this business unit at first, he said.
While the iPad was the first to crack the tablet code with consumers, Lenovo, like many other companies, is confident that there's room for other tablets, too. Hortensius expects there to be a "lot of winners and losers" in the market this year.
"This is definitely going to be a very important year in tablets," he said. — AP
Saturday, January 15, 2011
107 trillion emails sent last year: Pingdom
WASHINGTON - Internet users sent a total of 107 trillion emails last year, most of them spam, according to a Web monitoring service.
The number of emails sent last year were among the facts and figures about the Internet gathered by Pingdom from various sources and published Thursday at royal.pingdom.com/2011/01/12/internet-2010-in-numbers/.
Pingdom said that as of June 2010, there were 1.97 billion Internet users: 825.1 million in Asia, 475.1 million in Europe, 266.2 million in North America, 204.7 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 110.9 million in Africa, 63.2 million in the Middle East and 21.3 million in Oceania and Australia.
Pingdom said an average of 294 billion email messages were sent per day and about 89% were spam.
It said there are 2.9 billion email accounts worldwide and 152 million blogs.
The total number of websites is 255 million, Pingdom said, up 21.4 million over the previous year.
It said there were 88.8 million .com domain names, 13.2 million .net domain names, 8.6 million .org domain names and 79.2 million country code domains such as .cn or .uk.
Pingdom also published figures on the growth of Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter added 100 million new accounts last year and had a total of 175 million as of September, Pingdom said, adding that 25 billion messages, or "tweets," were sent in 2010.
Facebook had nearly 600 million users at the end of the year with 250 million joining in 2010.
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