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Tech Giant
App Developers App Store Apple Data Breach Digital Services Epic Games Financial Exploit Fortnite Google Tech Giant

Epic Games Wins: Historic Decision Against Google in App Store Antitrust Case

The conflict between tech behemoths Google and Apple and Fortnite creator Epic Games is a ground-breaking antitrust lawsuit that has rocked the app ecosystem. An important turning point in the dispute occurred when a jury decided to support the gaming behemoth over Google after Epic Games had initially challenged the app store duopoly.

The core of the dispute lies in the exorbitant fees imposed by Google and Apple on app developers for in-app purchases. Epic Games argued that these fees, which can go as high as 30%, amount to monopolistic practices, stifling competition and innovation in the digital marketplace. The trial has illuminated the murky waters of app store policies, prompting a reevaluation of the power dynamics between tech behemoths and app developers.

One of the key turning points in the trial was the revelation of internal emails from Google, exposing discussions about the company's fear of losing app developers to rival platforms. These emails provided a rare glimpse into the inner workings of tech giants and fueled Epic Games' claims of anticompetitive behavior.

The verdict marks a significant blow to Google, with the jury finding in favor of Epic Games. The decision has broader implications for the tech industry, raising questions about the monopolistic practices of other app store operators. While Apple has not yet faced a verdict in its case with Epic Games, the outcome against Google sets a precedent that could reverberate across the entire digital ecosystem.

Legal experts speculate that the financial repercussions for Google could be substantial, potentially costing the company billions. The implications extend beyond financial penalties; the trial has ignited a conversation about the need for regulatory intervention to ensure a fair and competitive digital marketplace.

Industry observers and app developers are closely monitoring the fallout from this trial, anticipating potential changes in app store policies and fee structures. The ruling against Google serves as a wake-up call for tech giants, prompting a reassessment of their dominance in the digital economy.

As the legal battle between Epic Games and Google unfolds, the final outcome remains years away. However, this trial has undeniably set in motion a reexamination of the app store landscape, sparking debates about antitrust regulations and the balance of power in the ever-evolving world of digital commerce.

Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, stated "this is a monumental step in the ongoing fight for fair competition in digital markets and for the basic rights of developers and creators." In the coming years, the legal structure controlling internet firms and app store regulations will probably be shaped by the fallout from this trial.

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Zero Exploit
Android App Store Data Google malware Safety Security Zero Exploit

Pinduoduo Malware Executed a Dangerous 0-day Exploit Against Millions of Android Devices

 

In accordance with a new report, Pinduoduo, a popular Chinese shopping app, exploited a zero-day vulnerability in the Android operating system to uplift its own privileges, rob personal data from infected endpoints, and install malicious apps. 

 Numerous sources validated the allegations, including cybersecurity firm Kaspersky, which examined "previous versions" of the app that were still being distributed through a Chinese app store and concluded that it exploited a flaw to install backdoors. 

“Some versions of the Pinduoduo app contained malicious code, which exploited known Android vulnerabilities to escalate privileges, download and execute additional malicious modules, some of which also gained access to users’ notifications and files,” Igor Golovin, a Kaspersky security researcher, told Bloomberg.

Google and Android are both not available in China, meaning the Play Store isn’t available there, either. According to ArsTechica, the versions of Pinduoduo available on both the Play Store and the Apple Store are clean. Nonetheless, Google removed it from its app repository last week and advised users to uninstall it if they had it.

According to Bloomberg, the announcement labeled the app "harmful" and alerted users that their data and devices were at risk. PDD, the app's developer, denied any wrongdoing and stated that the apps were clean.

“We strongly reject the speculation and accusation that the Pinduoduo app is malicious from an anonymous researcher,” the company told ArsTechnica in an email. “Google Play informed us on March 21 morning that Pinduoduo APP, among several other apps, was temporarily suspended as the current version is not compliant with Google’s Policy, but has not shared more details. We are communicating with Google for more information.” 

As per Lookout's initial investigation, at least two versions of the app exploited a flaw known as CVE-2023-20963, which was patched about two weeks ago. It's an escalation of privilege flaw that was being exploited before Google made it public.

According to Lookout's Christoph Hebeisen, this is a "very sophisticated attack for an app-based malware. In recent years, exploits have not usually been seen in the context of mass-distributed apps. Given the extremely intrusive nature of such sophisticated app-based malware, this is an important threat mobile users need to protect against.”
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Twitter
App Store Apple Elon Musk Technology Tim Cook Twitter

Twitter Feud with Apple Boss Resolved, Says Elon Musk


Twitter CEO Elon Musk has recently said that he and Apple boss Tim Cook have “resolved the misunderstanding” over Twitter being possibly removed from the App Store. 

The feud began when earlier this week, Musk, in a series of tweets accused Apple of halting most of the advertisements and threatening to remove the platform from its App Store. He added that this situation had become “a battle for the future of civilization.” 

However, Apple’s chief executive tweeted on Wednesday that “Tim was clear that Apple never consider doing so.” While he did not say whether Apple’s advertising was discussed in the meeting. 

The meeting between the two CEOs as numerous companies have halted spending on advertisements on Twitter, due to concerns over Elon Musk’s content moderation plan. 

This would apparently be a major setback for Twitter since Twitter relies on advertisements for the majority of its aggregate revenue. 

On Monday, the Twitter CEO accused apple of “censorship,” while also criticizing its policies, particularly the levies it imposes on purchases made through its App Store. “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” said Musk. 

Later, Musk updated his Twitter followers that he was meeting with Mr. Cook at Apple’s headquarters, adding in his tweet: “Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.” Meanwhile, Apple has not made any official comment on the said meeting. 

Weeks after Mr. Musk became the chief executive, Twitter lost at least half of its major advertisers. This estimates a loss of nearly $750 million to the social media giant, as reported by Media Matters, a non-profit watchdog. 

Some of the major advertisers lost included General Mills and Pfizer. Musk as well acknowledged that this defection has resulted in a “massive drop” in revenue, with the company losing $4 million per day. 

Apple, on the other hand, is consistently one of the major advertisers on the social network company, spending over $100 million annually, as reported by Bloomberg.  

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malware
Android App Store Apple Google iOS malware

Tim Cook Claims Android has 47 Times the Amount of Malware as iOS

 

During a live chat, Apple CEO Tim Cook stated that Android has more malware than iOS and that "sideloading" mobile software is not in the "best interests of users." Sideloading apps entails manually downloading and installing software over the Internet rather than from an app store. Apple's security and privacy would be ruined if it were compelled to enable side-loading programmes, as Android does, he stated on June 16 while speaking remotely at the VivaTech 2021 conference in Paris, France. 

When asked about the planned European law known as the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which attempts to prohibit big digital corporations from monopolizing their market position, Cook stated that Apple opposes it because it would require the company to allow consumers to install apps outside of the App Store. Cook also stated that Android has "47 times more malware" than Apple since iOS is created with a single app store. 

Explaining the reason, Cook added, "It's because we've designed iOS in such a way that there's one app store and all of the apps are reviewed prior to going on the store. And so that keeps a lot of this malware stuff out of our ecosystem, and customers have told us very continuously how much they value that, and so we're going to be standing up for the user in the discussions." 

Cook further claimed that the DMA's present language, which will compel side-loading on the iPhone, will "destroy the security" of the smartphone and many of the App Store's privacy measures. 

DMA targets firms with a huge user base, such as Apple, Google, and Amazon, and encourages them to open up their platforms to competitors. The proposed rule also intends to provide a more level playing field for businesses and individuals who rely on large "gatekeeper" online platforms to sell their goods and services in a single market. 

“We've been focusing on privacy for over a decade,” Cook stated when asked about Apple's commitment to privacy. “We see it as a basic human right. A fundamental human right. And we've been focused on privacy for decades. Steve used to say privacy was stating in plain language what people are signing up for and getting their permission. And that permission should be asked repeatedly. We've always tried to live up to that.”
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Technology
App Store Apple Apple Store iOS Scams Technology

Is Apple's Monopoly Making Its Security Vulnerable?


It's a well-known fact that Apple’s devices are undoubtedly way safer than any other company’s products, however, in recent research analysis, many reports claimed it to be a myth. 

According to the experts, Apple’s complex process of downloading apps has created a notion of added security but seemingly such is not the case, as revealed in deeper examinations. 

Reportedly, around 2% of the top-grossing iOS apps, are in some way, scams. Customers of several VPN apps, which protect users’ data, have complained against Apple App Store – saying that their devices are contaminated by a virus that tricks them to download and pay for software that they don’t need. 

An illegal QR code reader app that remains for a week on the store tricks users into paying $4.99. Moreover, some apps even mock themselves as being from big global organizations such as Amazon and Samsung. 

Apple always maintained its exclusive command on the App Store and describes this as its policy which is essential for customer’s sensitive personal credentials. Apple has a monopoly in the App market in terms of customer trust. However, some analysts said that this is indeed the biggest problem that there is no competition against this giant in the market, if some companies will come with alternatives then– as a matter of fact – Apple will invest more money in strengthening their security measures. 

“If consumers were to have access to alternative app stores or other methods of distributing software, Apple would be a lot more likely to take this problem more seriously,” said Stan Miles, an economics professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, Canada. 

As per the statistics, that Apple generates huge profit from the App store; around 30 percent of its revenue is constituted by the App store. 

Apple spokesperson Fred Sainz said in a statement that, “We hold developers to high standards to keep the App Store a safe and trusted place for customers to download software, and we will always take action against apps that pose a harm to users…” 

“…Apple leads the industry with practices that put the safety of our customers first, and we’ll continue learning, evolving our practices, and investing the necessary resources to make sure customers are presented with the very best experience.”
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Privacy
Amazon Web Services App Store iOS iPhone Privacy

A Bug in iPhone Call Recording App Exposed Clients Data

 

A security vulnerability in a famous iPhone call recording application exposed thousands of users' recorded conversations. The flaw was found by Anand Prakash, a security researcher and founder of PingSafe AI, who tracked down that the aptly named Automatic Call Recorder application permitted anybody to access the call recordings from different clients — by knowing their phone number. 
 This application can track and record calls without an internet connection and can alter the voices of recordings, upload them to Dropbox, Google Drive, or One Drive, and also can translate in up to 50 dialects. All the client information gets stored in the company’s cloud storage on Amazon web services. This cloud storage has somewhere around 130,000 audio recordings that make up almost 300 GB. 

 Security circumstances like this are disastrous. Alongside affecting client's security, these issues likewise debilitate the organization's image and give an additional benefit to the contenders, said Anand Prakash. “This wasn’t just a violation of data privacy but also affected the users physically and at cyber risk, if their recorded conversations carry sensitive personal information. App makers that go wrong in investing in their cybersecurity must accept that the fines they could face for non-compliance with data privacy laws are extremely expensive – not to mention the cost of losing their customers' trust” he added. 

The bug was detected by Anand Prakash on the 27th of the last month when he was able to modify the web traffic and supplant the enlisted telephone number with someone else's number utilizing a proxy site called Burp, which gave him admittance to that person's call records and details. Fortunately, the bug was fixed by Saturday, March 6th, and the glitch-free version was launched in the Apple App Store. 

The call recorder clients were advised to uninstall the previous variant and download the latest rendition that is 2.26 or newer which is accessible on the Apple App Store. The paid variant is $6.99 for 7 days; additionally, they allow a three-day trial period. Their most basic monthly membership costs $14.99, with a 12 months advance, and has a few other options as well.
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Trojan
App Store Apple iOS Malware malware Trojan

17 Trojan infested apps you need to delete from your iPhone right now!


Just like the ancient Greek story, where soldiers sneak into the gates of troy by hiding inside a wooden horse similarly Trojans sneak in your phone in the face of harmless apps that you voluntarily install. Apple users are being warned about such apps, to check their devices against a list of malware apps and delete them according to a report by Wandera.

Research team at Wandera, a software-as-a-service firm, has identified 17 apps that install malicious Trojan module on iOS devices. Apple says that the infected apps have been removed from the app store but after examination they found that the apps did not contain the claimed Trojan malware. Instead, the apps were removed because of being adware specifically called the "clicker Trojan malware" and included code that enabled artificial click-through of add and made it seem like you viewed an advertisement which is against App Store's guidelines. Apple further said that the protective tools of App Store have been updated to detect such apps.

 Below is the list of infected apps:

RTO Vehicle Information
EMI Calculator & Loan Planner
File Manager - Documents
Smart GPS Speedometer
CrickOne - Live Cricket Scores
Daily Fitness - Yoga Poses
FM Radio PRO - Internet Radio
My Train Info - IRCTC & PNR​ (not listed under developer profile)
Around Me Place Finder
Easy Contacts Backup Manager
Ramadan Times 2019
Pro Restaurant Finder - Find Food
BMI Calculator PRO - BMR Calc
Dual Accounts Pro
Video Editor - Mute Video
Islamic World PRO - Qibla
Smart Video Compressor

The developer of these is AppAspect Technologies, from India with apps for iOS as well as Android. Wandera said that on examining these apps, they didn't contain the clicker Trojan malware but they used too. Covington thinks it's a possibility that they used to contain Trojan but were pulled from the store, and republished after removing the Trojan module, perhaps the bust on Play store made them retreat and focus their attention on iOS.

According to Wandera, the Trojan not only performed adware but also steal information and data to send to external command or controller, create back-doors, performance degradation, battery drain and heavy bandwidth use. The fact that they published on App Store and remained undetected is alone a matter of concern. “We were amazed with this one,” Wandera VP Michael Covington said in a statement to Forbes. “We've seen a couple of issues creep into the Apple App Store over the last few months—and it always seems to be the network element.”

Apple stands it's ground that any such Trojan malware existed, saying there was no danger beyond ad click-through fraud. But the good news is, the problem is solved on deleting the apps and no remains are left behind. “There is no access to special frameworks that might have left something behind,” Covington explained.
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iPhone Hacks
App App Store App vulnerability iPhone iPhone Contacts iPhone Hacks

iPhone contacts app vulnerable to hack attack, says security firm


Apple has never shied away from boasting about how secure its systems are, but researchers have found that contacts saved on iPhones are vulnerable to an SQLite hack attack which could infect the devices with malware.

SQLite - the most widespread database engine in the world - is available in every operating system (OS), desktop and mobile phone. Windows 10, macOS, iOS, Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Android are popular users of SQLite.

Security firm Check Point has demonstrated a technique being used to manipulate Apple's iOS Contacts app. Searching the Contacts app under these circumstances triggers the device to run malicious codes, Apple Insider reported on Saturday.

The vulnerability has been identified in the industry-standard SQLite database.

Documented in a 4,000-word report, the company's hack involved replacing one part of Apple's Contacts app and while apps and any executable code has to go through Apple's startup checks, an SQLite database is not executable.

"Persistence (keeping the code on the device after a restart) is hard to achieve on iOS as all executable files must be signed as part of Apple's Secure Boot. Luckily for us, SQLite databases are not signed," the report quoted the Check Point researchers as saying.

As of now, Apple has not commented on Check Point's report.
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Hacking
App Store Apps Cyber Crime Cyber Security Fraud Hacking

Apps Generating Untraceable International Phone Numbers ?






Applications that generate international phone numbers that are super difficult to track are being employed by cyber criminals to rip people off.

A recent victim that had called the cyber-crime branch complained that they received a call from two spate numbers one with 001 and the other with 0063 as the country codes.

Per sources the app stores happen to contain 40 to 60 such apps through which cyber-cons could easily get these numbers.

Sources mentioned that allegedly “Dingtone” is an app via which a user can easily sift through a variety of country codes which are absolutely untraceable.

These cases according to the cyber-crime branch aren’t categorized separately but these are surely being registered and deliberated upon.



According to the cyber-security researchers a minimum of 500 cases come into existence per day in India alone with 40 cases pinning on major cities.

The police lack the technological efficiency as well as resources to possibly track the users of such applications. There is also a matter of jurisdiction.

Mostly, the above-mentioned apps are ‘not’ developed by Indian initiators but ironically originated from countries that have strict laws on removal of apps.

Information of the caller could seemingly be obtained by requesting the telecom service providers as such services are always linked together.

However, requesting the details of the callers from a telecom service provider abroad is extremely time-consuming. Besides, the CBI would require Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty with that very country.

As of now, such treaties exist with only 39 countries. In addition some countries could also demand a court order and furthermore the procedure in itself takes six to eighteen months.

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