7IN BRIEF
TOMORROW’S
WORLDThe square hanging around
this person’s neck is picking
up audio being played publicly
and ‘beaming’ it to their ears,
so only they can hear it. It’s a
patent application from Apple
for a “wearable device with
directional audio” that would
be superior to “somewhat
obtrusive” headphones.Google removes six fake antivirus
apps targeting UK
the apps, they are still bought
by criminals in “unofficial
markets”, indicating that the
hacker behind the attack
might be “trying to stay under
the radar, while still involved
in malicious activity”.G
oogle has removed six
fake antivirus Android
apps from the Play Store after
they were caught stealing
banking details from people
who had installed them.
The apps, discovered by
US-Israeli security firm Check
Point, were infecting phones
and tablets with the Sharkbot
malware. This works by
showing fake online forms
that trick victims into
entering sensitive data.
The removed apps are
Antivirus, Super Cleaner;
Alpha Antivirus, Cleaner;
Atom Clean-Booster,
Antivirus; Center Security –
Antivirus; and two called
Powerful Cleaner, Antivirus.
Check Point pictured theicons for the apps on its
blog (see screenshot, and
http://www.snipca.com/41589)
Check Point said that
the apps had been
downloaded more than
15,000 times. Over a third of
the victims (36 per cent) were
in the UK, with most of the
rest (62 per cent) in Italy.
Researchers warned that
although Google had removedA
vast has admitted that in
certain cases CCleaner
can remove your software
without your permission.
It confirmed the flaw in
response to a complaint from
a Windows 10 user, rounakr94,
who wrote on a Reddit forum
(www.snipca.com/41603) that
CCleaner removed essential
MSI files when they tried to
uninstall the tool through the
‘Programs and Features’
section in the Control Panel
(see screenshot).
CCleaner failed to uninstall
some programs, including
Adobe Reader and HDSentinel,
leaving them corrupted,
rounakr94 claimed. Reinstalling
these and scanning for malware
took two hours, they said.
Avast, which owns
CCleaner’s developer Piriform,
said that the problem may
have been caused by the user
installing CCleaner in their
D:\Applications folder. When
CCleaner was uninstalled, itAvast believes this problem
would probably affect only “a
minority of customers”, but is
nonetheless working on an
update to prevent it from
happening in future.
It’s the latest in a series of
controversies to have hit
CCleaner’s reputation since
Avast bought Piriform in 2017.
These include adding PUPs,
and persistent messages
asking you to upgrade to
the paid-for version. In Issue
627’s ‘Stop Using Rubbish
Software’ Cover Feature, we
recommended replacing
CCleaner with BleachBit
(www.bleachbit.org).- Should you use Piriform’s
Recuva? See page 54
removed all other programs
in that location.
In a statement to the
website BetaNews, Avast said:
“CCleaner’s default behaviour
when installed is to create a
new ‘CCleaner’ folder, so at
the point of uninstall,
everything in that folder can
be deleted without issue”.
It added: “In the case
described in this article, a user
would need to deliberately
bypass this behaviour and
either choose to install
CCleaner to a folder they
currently use for other
purposes or later use the
‘CCleaner’ folder for
something other than its
intended use”.CCleaner uninstalls software
without permission, admits Avast
FIX GOOGLE PIXEL
PHONES YOURSELF
Google has teamed up with
tech-repair site iFixit to
sell spare parts for its Pixel
phones, meaning you’ll be
able to fix them yourself. The
service will be available in the
UK later this year from http://www.
ifixit.com/google (pictured
above). IFixit already sells
official repair kits for iPads and
iPhones – just search for your
device at https://store.ifixit.
co.uk.iDRIVE ADDS 1TB
PC STORAGE
Online-storage company
iDrive (www.idrive.com)
has added 1TB of PC data
to its subscription package,
which costs 99 US cents for
the first year, then $9.99 a
year (around £7.64) after
that. It will continue to offer
unlimited mobile photo and
video storage as part of the
package. The service launched
in June 2021, soon after
Google Photos ended its free
unlimited plan. Read more at
http://www.snipca.com/41596.CADBURY ‘EASTER OFFER’ WAS RUSSIAN SCAM
Cadbury has confirmed that
an offer promising a free
Easter chocolate basket was
a scam. Clicking the link in the
messages, which spread on
social media and WhatsApp,sent you to a Russian site
that asked for personal data.
in a tweet (www.snipca.
com/41593), Cadbury urged
customers “not to interact”
with the scam.Issue 630 • 27 April – 10 May 2022