Computer Act!ve - UK (2022-01-19)

Protect yourtech

WATCHOUTFOR...

New tools

ScamWatch

Readerswarnreaders

11

Warn your fellow readersabout scams

at [email protected]

Scamsandthreatstoavoid,plusnewsecuritytools

Dysonoffera‘load of

hot air’

Howaboutthisfortheultimate

too-good-to-be-trueoffer-aDyson

Supersonic hairdryerreduced from

£299.99to£ 1.78.Thescamdealwas

advertisedonF aceb ook, along with a

photoap parently showing the‘amazi ng’

priceinf ront of thehairdr yers in an

Argosstore (see it atwww.snipca.

com/40541). SeveralpeopleIknow

received theofferfromfriends.One of

them said itsoundedcrediblebecause

theadc laimed Argos“has broken its

contractwithDyson”,andcouldtherefore

slash prices. Thatsoundedabsurd, so I

check ed online andreadthat it wasa

hoax.Quite literally,aloadofh ot air.

Paul Hughes

Over 225 million

leakedpasswordshave

beenaddedtothe

database at Have I

Been Pwned (HIBP),

incr easing thenumber

youcan search to

checkwhetheryours

is in criminal hands.

Theywereagiftfromthe UK’s

NationalCrime Agency,whichhad

collect ed 585million passwordsfrom

cyber-criminals. Troy Hunt,who runs

HIBP, then removedthe pa sswordsthat

were alreadypartoft he site’s database,

leaving225 mi llion (225,665,425 to be

exact).Itb rings thetotal number of

passwordsont he site to 847million,

as Hunt explains atwww.snipca.

com/40550.

To checkwhetherany of your

passwordshavebeenleaked–whether

part of this newcollectionor not–

visithttps://haveibeenpwned.com/

Passwords,typeyourpassword, then

clickthe ‘Pwned’buttononthe right.

You’ll seeeithe ragreen ‘Good news

–nopwnagefound ’message,orared

‘Ohno–pwned!’ abovethe number of

times it hasappearedindata breaches

(see screensh ot). If yousee thelatter,

change thepasswordonevery account

youuse it.

HaveIBeen Pwned’s

newpasswords

What’sthe threat?

Securityresearchershavefounddodgy

appsonSamsung’sGalaxyStorethatcan

beusedtoinfectthecompany’s phones

andtabletswithmalware.

TheGalaxyStoreisavailableonlyon

Samsungdevicesandishometothe

company’sbuilt-inapps.Italsocontains

appsfromothercompaniesthathave

beenmadeavailableexclusivelyto

Samsung,meaningthey’renotlisted

onGoogle’sPlayStore.

LikeGoogle,Samsungusessecurity

filterstopreventmaliciousappsfrom

sneakingontoitsstore–but,alsolike

Google,itdoesn’talwayssucceed.In

December,researchersatthewebsite

AndroidPolicespottedseveralappsthat

claimtoletyouwatchpaid-forTVand

filmsforfree. Theymimictheillegal

video-streamingserviceShowbox,which

closedin2 01 8followinglegalactionfrom

filmstudios.

Theappsthemselvesdon’tcontain

Howcan you staysafe?

It’s unlikelyyou’veinstalledanyof

theappsbecauseattemptingtodo

sotriggersGoogle’s‘PlayProtect’

warningsystem(seescreenshot).

Thankfully,Googlewarnsabout

suspiciousappsevenwhenthey’re

downloadedfromanon-Google

store,suchasSamsung’s.

Butit’scertainlypossiblethat

you’vecomeacrosssimilarvideo

appsthatpromisefreeaccessto

paid-forcontent.Suchappsare

alwaysillegal,andareoftenthe

workofscammersandhackers.

IfyouhaveaGalaxydevice,you

shoulduseSamsung’sstoreonlyfor

updatingthecompany’s default

apps.Forinstallingnewthird-party

apps,it’s muchsafertosticktoGoogle’s

PlayStore,whichhasstrongersecurity,

thoughcanstillgettricked–suchas

whenJokermalwarewasdetected(see

Issue6 21 ,page 1 1).

malware,buttheyaskforpermissionto

accessinformation–suchasyourcontact

listandcallsyou’vemade–whichwould

makeiteasyforhackerstoinfiltrateyour

device.

Malwarevia Samsung’sGalaxyStore

Issue623 January–1February 2022