A new type of malware, Ghost Push has been discovered by Cheetah Mobile, the fourth largest publisher of applications worldwide as per App Annie. Distributed through non-Google app stores, this virus has affected 14,846 types of phone and 3,658 brands.

[Image Source – Cheetah Mobile’s blog]

According to CM Security Research Lab, it’s the most widespread and infectious virus it’s seen to date. So far it’s been affecting 1.3 million devices globally. Currently, India has 1,44,199 devices being affected by this virus and is ranked as No.2 in terms of the amount of devices being affected. The virus is mainly spread through Europe, Russia, the Middle East region, and southern China. Cheetah Mobile has so far discovered 39 apps that contains the virus.

Ghost Push : How it works

Ghost Push installs unwanted applications like ‘Monkey test’ or ‘Times service’ on the device. These applications cannot be removed easily even by doing a factory reset or using normal antivirus software. The malware slows down the system, drains the battery and consumes large amounts of cellular data. Disguised as legitimate applications, Ghost Push can spread itself widely via commercial SDK’s or browser ads.

[Image Source – Cheetah Mobile’s blog]

Ghost Push : How to detect the infection

Clean Master and CM Security can now detect the infection. CM Security Research Lab is also currently developing a toolkit aimed specifically at ‘Ghost Push’ removal, which will keep your phone safe. Get the tool and protect your phone now!

For more information about the virus, please refer to Cheetah Mobile’s blog; Cheetah Mobile also provides step-by-step process on how to remove this malware.

The second quarter of 2015 was wrought with high profile vulnerabilities and hacks. Cyber criminals became more inventive in their attack methods to infiltrate and abuse existing technologies that are often overlooked. India emerged as the top targeted nation by data-stealing malware to hijack business transactions and steal information from small and medium sized businesses.

Each re-purposed existing malware, tool-kits & techniques to target victims from India, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Taiwan and the United States [US], among other countries.

Myla V. Pilao, Director, TrendLabs Marketing Communications, Trend Micro said

In the second quarter, we saw a shift in the threat landscape with cyber criminals becoming more sophisticated and creative, amplifying existing methods of attack, and using them in new ways. The ethereal outlook on the threat of cyber-crime can no longer be held by the general population. This quarter demonstrated that the potential damage caused by cyber attacks extends far beyond a simple software bug to hacks of airplanes, smart cars and television stations.

Coupled with the fact that attack volumes are of the magnitude of hundreds of millions, the threat that cyber criminals pose today is more tangible than it has ever been.

Some of the key numbers from Q2 2015 demonstrate the challenges of today’s threat landscape are:

• Number of malware detections across APAC in Q2 2015: Over 118 million
• Number of spam messages blocked across APAC: Over 396 million
• Hits to malicious URLs from users across APAC: Over 214 million
• Hits to malicious URLs hosted in the APAC region: Over 50 million

Hackers are taking more strategic approaches, refining their approach and targeting more selective victims to improve their infection rates. This is reflected by the exponential increase in the use of several traditional attack methods, including a 50 percent increase in the integration of the Angler exploit kit, a 67 percent growth in overall exploit kit-related threats, and CryptoWall ransom-ware becoming highly targeted, with 79 percent of infections occurring in the U.S.

Additionally, government entities have realized the full impact of cyber attacks during the second quarter with massive data breaches on both the Internal Revenue Service [IRS] in May and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management [OPM] system in June. The OPM data breach was the largest of its kind to date, exposing personally identifiable information of approximately 21 million individuals. Other government agencies were impacted by targeted campaigns using macro malware, new command and control [C&C] servers and the continued use of newly exploited vulnerabilities and 0-days Pawn Storm.

A blog post regarding the report can also be viewed here. For the complete report, please visit this link. 

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. Their solutions are powered by cloud-based global threat intelligence, the Trend Micro™ Smart Protection Network™ infrastructure & are supported by more than 1,200 threat experts around the globe.  For more information, visit TrendMicro

The “hits” keep on coming for Android’s mediaserver component. Trend Micro discovered yet another Android mediaserver vulnerability, which can be exploited to perform attacks involving arbitrary code execution. With this new vulnerability, an attacker would be able to run their code with the same permissions that the mediaserver program already has as part of its normal routines.

This vulnerability has been designated as CVE-2015-3842. While it affects Android versions 2.3 to 5.1.1, Google has fixed and published details this vulnerability via the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Currently, there are no known active attacks against this vulnerability.

This discovery closely follows three other major vulnerabilities in Android’s mediaserver component that surfaced recently. CVE-2015-3823 may allow attackers to trap phones in endless reboots, ANDROID-21296336 may render devices silent, while CVE-2015-3824 [Stagefright], can be used to install malware through a multimedia message.

How it works

The vulnerability involves AudioEffect, a component of the mediaserver program. It uses an unchecked variable which comes from the client, which is usually an app. For an attack to begin, attackers convince the victim to install an app that doesn’t require any required permissions, giving them a false sense of security.

Possible threat scenarios

This attack can be fully controlled, which means a malicious app can decide when to start the attack and also when to stop. An attacker would be able to run their code with the same permissions that mediaserver already has as part of its normal routines.

Since the mediaserver component deals with a lot of media-related tasks including taking pictures, reading MP4 files, and recording videos, the privacy of the victim may be at risk. Devices with customized versions of Android but with no modification made to the mediaserver component are also affected.

A dilemma users may face is that it will be difficult for them to locate the cause once an attack occurs. In our demo, we simply triggered the attack by running an app; this is convenient and intuitive for disclosure. While attacks can be triggered by apps alone, real-world attacks won’t involve apps that are easy to detect.

The malicious app will try as much as possible to appear legitimate and use dynamic load technology to remain undetected while triggering the attack several days/months later, either persistently or intermittently, similar to other malware.

Solutions

End users can block this threat from the onset by downloading Trend Micro Mobile Security (TMMS), which can detect threats trying to use this vulnerability and running any of the scenarios presented. Android users can also reboot their device using safe mode to un-install the malicious app.

However, this method might prove difficult, especially for those unaccustomed to tinkering with their devices. We also recommend that device manufacturers patch their devices regularly to prevent their users from suffering from attacks that use this vulnerability.

About Trend Micro

Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in security software, strives to make the world safe for exchanging digital information. Built on 26 years of experience, our solutions for consumers, businesses and governments provide layered data security to protect information on mobile devices, endpoints, gateways, servers and the cloud. Trend Micro enables the smart protection of information, with innovative security technology that is simple to deploy and manage, and fits an evolving ecosystem. For more information, visit TrendMicro

Money View – an android app that empowers its users to take informed decisions to be financially fit – has recently added an interesting feature that will help one to remain within budget and save more!

The feature called Budget Management, allows users to set monthly budgets and track ‘available to spend’ cash based on the set goal.  To make it user-friendly, this feature has been designed as a quick-to-comprehend graphical representation of how much more they can safely spend; which in turn desists Money View users from overspending and be credit free.

Additionally, the Money View app has an expense tracker that gives the user multiple categories of spends which is also represented by icons for ease of use, to show where the money is being spent. With another inherent feature that flags impending bill payments, Money View ensures that its users get a holistic outlook of their finances month on month and are empowered to stay on top of their funds with minimal effort.

Features of MoneyView app

With the Free Money View app, you get a real-time visibility into your entire Personal Finances. It works by itself without any manual data entry – our daily expense manager app organizes your financial summary by analyzing SMS sent by your bank and billers to your phone. The app auto-tracks your expense, bills and account balances across all your financial accounts to help you stay on top of your money. The app is highly secure as it never reads any sensitive data – no full bank account numbers, no OTP, and no Net-banking login/password. [Source – MoneyView App Link]

Easy Expense Tracker

• Auto-tracks all your spend through credit/debit cards, net-banking, cash withdrawals or cheques.
• Categorizes your spend to show where your money is being spent.
• Easy cash management tool to track your cash income and spend.

Bill Tracker and Bill Management

• All your mobile, credit card and utility bills & EMI’s in one place with timely reminder to pay bills on time.
• Easy and fast bill payment through the app; Whiz Pay – one-click bill payment for select billers.

Smart Financial Planning

• All your bank and credit card accounts in one place.
• Real-time tracking of transaction activities and account balances

Shared expenses

• Best way to manage shared expenses – shared apartment expenses with room-mates, vacation with friends, etc.
• Keep track of personal loans – with friends or family.

Highly Secure

• No access to sensitive information – No full account numbers, never reads OTP.
• Your financial information is never shared.
• Set Passcode on the App for added security

You can find MoneyView in action below

The MoneyView app for Android can be downloaded from here

For more information visit www.moneyview.in