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Google has recently removed 17 Android applications from the official Play Store because they were infected with the Joker (aka Bread) malware. ZDNet reports: "This spyware is designed to steal SMS messages, contact lists, and device information, along with silently signing up the victim for premium wireless application protocol (WAP) services," Zscaler security researcher Viral Gandhi said this week. The 17 malicious apps were uploaded on the Play Store this month and didn't get a chance to gain a following, having been downloaded more than 120,000 times before being detected. Following its internal procedures, Google removed the apps from the Play Store, used the Play Protect service to disable the apps on infected devices, but users still need to manually intervene and remove the apps from their devices. But this recent takedown also marks the third such action from Google's security team against a batch of Joker-infected apps over the past few months. [...] The way these infected apps usually manage to sneak their way past Google's defenses and reach the Play Store is through a technique called "droppers," where the victim's device is infected in a multi-stage process. Malware authors begin by cloning the functionality of a legitimate app and uploading it on the Play Store. This app is fully functional, requests access to dangerous permissions, but also doesn't perform any malicious actions when it's first run. Because the malicious actions are usually delayed by hours or days, Google's security scans don't pick up the malicious code, and Google usually allows the app to be listed on the Play Store. But once on a user's device, the app eventually downloads and "drops" (hence the name droppers, or loaders) other components or apps on the device that contain the Joker malware or other malware strains.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Plus: All the rest from Microsoft's shindig – it's only wafer-thin

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He was pronounced dead at the scene

POUNDLAND has come under fire for selling Ouija boards in UK stores.

Do you come from a bork down under?

Bork!Bork!Bork!  Bork is going down under today after a Register reader eyeballed Windows doing its worst on a Canberra ATM.…

POLICE are appealing for help as they search for a man who went missing last week.

Warns investors that big clouds could start to sell native security tools direct to customers and reduce the need for third-party vendors

Security software outfit McAfee has filed to return to the stock market.…

Delivery slots, priority customers and product caps have all been changed

WELL now we know.

ESA also finds planet hot enough to melt iron

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Join us and Quadrotech on September 30 and learn how to finally escape the 1990s

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The school has been closed to all children and staff

OBJECTIONS have flooded in against plans to built 130 homes on the edge of a village.

SCHOOL students will be returning to virtual learning this week after they were forced to self-isolate due to a confirmed case of coronavirus.

Braintree Council used ASBO-style orders aimed at tackling nuisance behaviour on just two occasions last year, figures reveal.

THE countdown is ticking to the opening night of a new in demand Halstead restaurant which is set to open next week.

‘Zephyr’ is designed to either beam down data or spy for weeks, but lasted about 90 minutes

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Business Insider: Last month, Las Vegas' largest public school district announced that a hacker compromised some of its files using ransomware and was holding the files hostage while demanding a ransom payment. Now, a hacker has published files containing students' grades and personal information after school district officials refused to pay the ransom. Brett Callow, a threat analyst with cybersecurity firm Emsisoft, told Business Insider that he discovered leaked documents published to an online hacking forum that purported to include records from Nevada's Clark County School District, including students' names, social security numbers, addresses, and some financial information. Callow's findings were first reported by The Wall Street Journal on Monday. "Ransomware attacks happen for one reason, and one reason only: they're profitable," Callow told Business Insider. "The only way way to stop them is to make them unprofitable, and that means organizations must stop paying ransoms."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.