Mobile

09/29/2017 - A few days ago reports emerged about a collection of vulnerabilities on the Bluetooth protocol suite. Those allow an attacker to gain complete control over a vulnerable target device without the victim being aware of the attack. What are the consequences for users and how relevant are the examples?

04/27/2017 - The Android operating system clearly dominates the mobile market, with a share of around 72 percent. In Germany alone, around 67 percent of smartphone owners use a device with an Android operating system (source: Statcounter). G DATA security experts discovered over 750,000 new Android malware apps in the first quarter of 2017. That represents almost 8,400 new malware instances every day.

12/23/2016 - There were quite some changes in the area of malware, cyber crime, and IT security in 2016. At the same time the technological progress moved in giant leaps. Apart from desktop PCs and notebooks, smart and connected technologies have been established in both private and industrial environments. Read the predictions for the most important topics in the upcoming year.

12/06/2016 - The fact that there are many free apps on unofficial market platforms appeals to many users. This is especially true since a lot of the apps would cost money on Google Play. There is a downside to this, however, as recent findings about a new Android malware called "Gooligan" have shown.

10/28/2016 - Mobile devices, especially smartphones, are a very lucrative target for cyber criminals because they are a fixture of everyday private and working life. Researchers at VUSec Labs, the University of California and Graz University of Technology have succeeded in exploiting a security hole in Android smartphone hardware. The experts have called the attack vector “Deterministic Rowhammer” (Drammer for...

07/12/2016 - Some may still know the adorable little pocket critters that were all the rage in the late 90s. Now they’re back as an Augmented Reality game for smartphones. Attackers try to use the popularity of this brand new game for themselves and prey on impatient gamers who cannot wait for the game to be released: at least one malicious version of the app has been discovered.

07/08/2016 - During the past few days and weeks reports surfaced according to which a new type of malware has infected millions of smartphones and tablet PCs worldwide. The malware in question is highly lucrative for its makers – each month they can rake in up to 300.000 Euros in revenue. The makers of this malware work for an advertising company called “Yingmob” which is based out of China, say researchers of...

06/22/2016 - There is hardly anything more annoying than error messages and the associated trouble with programs that crash, work that has been lost and the like. Microsoft appears to be trying to improve the user experience with its blue screen errors. However, they have not got rid of the infamous “BSOD”, but are allegedly providing a QR code with a link to a matching help page. This technology offers a...

01/27/2016 - Premium SMS messages were the first attacks on Android users – almost six years ago, malware with this functionality was the primary risk. Since then of course, the malware landscape for mobile devices has moved on significantly. For this very reason, it is notable that a new type of subscription trap has been evident in the current Google Play store for several weeks now, causing Android users...

12/18/2015 - Famous German publisher Springer launched ‘Cybergefahr’ in the D-A-CH countries, a book written by Eddy Willems, G DATA’s Security Evangelist.