Barcode Scanner, extensions and other news

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Let's go back to talking about current events, some important news has come out and it seemed right to mention it also because we are mainly talking about safety. Barcode Scanner, extensions and other news it is in fact an article designed specifically to update you a little on what has happened in recent weeks.

Barcode Scanner

The first news concerns an application called Barcode Scanner from the LavaBird LTD. We warn you immediately that if by chance you have this application on your smartphone uninstall it immediately and try the one we suggest. What happened with Barcode Scanner it's quite serious: malicious code was deliberately inserted with the December 4, 2020 update ¹. In fact, those who have installed this application may have noticed pop-ups, strange advertisements and other problems on their smartphone! If you are interested in more details, take a look at the article on Malwarebytes.

Our advice is always the same: use the alternative store as much as possible F-Droid which, as far as we know, has never hosted applications with malware since each of its applications is sifted and dissected in search of tracers and so on!

Barcode Scanner, extensions and other news

More or less the same fate happened to an extension for Chrome call The Great Suspender ². Again, uninstall it as soon as possible if you have it in yours Browsers. As for Barcode Scanner here too the application had added malicious code. The thing absurd is that an issue (a "problem") had already been opened on GitHub ³ where someone warned that the new developer probably intended to make a not entirely honest use of it. The application The Great Suspender It was used to reduce the RAM consumption of Google Chrome.

Our advice, as you know, is to uninstall Chrome and try to use Firefox or other alternatives For example Brave. Brave in fact it uses the same engine as Chrome but allows faster browsing thanks also to its pre-installed advertising blockers ⁴. The other advice is to only install extensions proposed by those you consider reliable sources. In this case, in fact, there was an issue open since November, if someone had asked us if this extension was safe we would most likely have been able to advise that it was certainly not recommended (us or someone on our Telegram group or in ours Matrix room).

Be careful with that APK

Finally, we would like to point out that a Android malware very dangerous ⁵⁶. The virus has been renamed Oscorp by CERT-AgID analysts. Through a campaign of phishing, invites unsuspecting users to download files such as CustomerProtection.apk or CustomerProtection.apk. By running these files on your Android smartphone the virus will be able to read All what appears on your screen, automatically disabling all the antiviruses present. If you want to learn more, read on the article on Cyber Security 360. Therefore, pay particular attention to the APKs you install on your mobile phone, especially during this period. Our advice is to always do it only through sites you really trust such as F-Droid.

APK, for those who don't know what we're talking about, is just the file extension that allows the installation of applications on Android. All the applications you have on your Android have the .apk extension. When you install them via the stores you do not see the file name or its extension. However, the file that is installed on your mobile phone is always an APK. An APK can also be installed outside of the stores, which is why it can be dangerous: you could receive an SMS, an email or a QR code that could lead you to download that virus.

Conclusions

We have finished this article dedicated to security. There would be many other interesting things to talk about such as the request from the Italian Privacy Guarantor on the new social network vocal called Clubhouse ⁷. However our voice could become a new gold mine for Big Tech and the Guarantor would like to see more clearly. We'll probably talk more about this later when there is more information!

1. The Android malware that infected 10 million smartphones[↩]
2. Google just booted The Great Suspender off the Chrome Web Store for being malware[↩]
3. URGENT: SECURITY: New maintainer is probably malicious[↩]
4. Brave features[↩]
5. Oscorp, the “usual” malware for Android[↩]
6. Oscorp, the malware for Android that takes control of the smartphone and steals credentials[↩]
7. The Italian Privacy Guarantor wants to see clearly about Clubhouse[↩]

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