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Instagram Fakes Spreading Malware on Android Devices
- geoffw8 15y agoI downloaded a N64 emulator a week or two ago, and the spam on my phone has been relentless. I'm literally getting a dozen notifications a day and more worryingly its actually installing apps, "Offer of the day!" and such. I didn't mind it for a day or two if I'm honest, was happy to have the emulator. But now its just plain annoying. Was going to look into reformatting my phone. Samsung Nexus ICE. Its a shame really, you'd hope for a level of protection.
- rplnt 15y agoAlways look what permissions app asks for and don't accept anything that seems unusual for that type of app. Even apps on market can be malicious so having antivirus shouldn't hurt either. I have one primarily because of a "phone recovery" feature as my Defy didn't have it built in.. but who knows what I'll try to install one day.
- nodata 15y agoDid you download this through the market? If yes, did you leave a comment warning others about this, and did you report the app?
- huggyface 15y agoYour device is rooted, I presume? That is the only way an app could install other apps. Honestly in this case you have no one to blame but yourself. Root your phone and all bets are off.
- eigenvector 15y agoRoot your phone and grant superuser permissions to untrusted apps, and yes, all bets are off. Most root user ROMs won't, by default, grant root access to apps unless you manually white-list them.
- geoffw8 15y agoErr, haven't rooted my phone actually.
- StCroix 15y agoThis is definitely fodder for the "walled garden" proponents to justify closed and heavily vetted architectures. It feels like the old WWW-Wild west days but this time with bigger brothers smugly looking down with the "tut, tut, tut" expression on their faces.
- jimmyvanhalen 15y agoThe average user doesn't care if their phone is "open" or not. Having a walled garden is beneficial to 99% of the users. "open" mobile devices (even though they really aren't that open) benefits some developers and users.
- huggyface 15y agoThe average user doesn't care if their phone is "open" or not. This is like saying that the average user doesn't care about free markets or not. Sure, they might not directly state a preference, but they do most certainly care about the platform benefits of it.
- jimmyvanhalen 15y agoWhy does it matter what OS my toaster runs when all I want is a bagel?
- huggyface 15y agoIf the dominant toaster conglomerate decided to exclude bagels, you would care.
- jimmyvanhalen 15y agobut they don't exclude bagels. ;)
- icebraining 15y agoI disagree; I think that perspective is shortsighted because it only looks at the direct benefits. Think of how much users have been benefiting from new and innovative webapps, which are a result of the competition between browsers. Now imagine where we would be if Windows was a walled garden and didn't allow competing applications, like Apple does with iOS. Openness breeds competition. Competition is always good for the user.
- guard-of-terra 15y agoHaha. That man on the embedded picture is The Witness. http://lurkmore.to/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B5%D0%BB%D1%8C http://lurkmore.to/%D0%A1%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D1%82%D0%B... It's an internet meme and it looks like malware authors left it there on purpose for malware researchers' amusement.
- eljaco 15y agoI read the current title as Instagram faking a malware spread, not that there are Instagram-lookalikes spreading malware.
- Flam 15y agoYes me too. This title is intentionally misleading.
- bradleyland 15y agoI always try to avoid being cynical, but in this case, It's hard to argue otherwise: Page title <title>: Instagram Fakes Spreading Malware on Android Devices Post title <h1>: Fake Instagram apps are spreading malware on Android devices In the page title, "fakes" is ambiguous. Is it a noun or a verb? The page title shows up in search results and RSS feeds, thus the ambiguity is present in a place where the verb interpretation would raise more eyebrows.
- alexkappa 15y agoThe title of this post has nothing to do with the post itself. TNW you suck.