Tech Nuggets with the Technology

Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Amazon's foreign websites named in US piracy and counterfeiting report

https://ift.tt/3d45vI6

Microsoft revenue beats as remote work feeds cloud demand, boosts Teams

Microsoft benefited from strong demand for its Teams collaboration software, which Nadella said on a conference call now has 75 million users and competes with Zoom Video Communications Inc and Slack Technologies Inc. https://ift.tt/3f5mGuw

Twitter Opens Up Data of COVID-19 Tweets for Researchers to Study

Twitter will grant researchers and software developers access to a real-time data stream of tens of millions of daily public tweets about COVID-19, which they can use to study the spread of the... https://ift.tt/2ShgTIs

Microsoft Sees Teams, Xbox Usage Rise Thanks Remote Work and Lockdowns

Microsoft on Wednesday beat Wall Street sales and profit expectations, powered by sharp demand for its Teams chat and online meeting app and Xbox gaming services as the world shifted to working and... https://ift.tt/2KNKUf0

Google Pixel 4a could go on sale from May 22 but will it launch in India

Google Pixel 4a is a much-anticipated smartphone that has often been leaked with pictures of retail boxes being spotted on the internet recently. As per the latest piece of information, the Pixel 4a is slated to go on sale from May 22 in Germany. The phone was earlier set to be unveiled during Google I/O 2020, the company’s annual developers conference but the event was called off due to the Coronavirus outbreak across the world.

The successor to last year’s Pixel 3a, the 4a is expected to be a slightly trimmed down version of the Pixel 4 and is aimed at markets like India where the Pixel 4 didn’t launch. According to a German report, the 4a will likely go on sale from May 22 and will be offered by Vodafone under contract. The phone is reportedly priced starting at 399 Euros which roughly translates to around Rs 32,000 by direct conversion.

Google Pixel 4a comes after Apple announced an affordable iPhone SE 2020 and OnePlus launched its latest OnePlus 8 series of smartphones earlier this month. The report hints that as the sale commences from May 22, we can expect Google to announce the 4a officially just days prior.

Google Pixel 4a leaked specifications

The Google Pixel 4a is rumoured to feature a 5.8-inch Full HD+ (2340 x 1080 pixels) resolution OLED screen. The display has a punch-hole cutout for the front-facing 8MP camera with an 84-degree field-of-view.

It could be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 730 chipset with an octa-core CPU and Adreno 618 GPU. This is paired with 6GB RAM and upto 128GB storage options to choose from.

Pixel 4a has a single 12.2MP camera with support for both OIS and EIS, while the front-facing camera is reportedly the same as the Pixel 3a. The phone’s rear camera is capable of recording in 4K at 30fps, 1080p at 30/60/120fps and 720p at up to 240fps while the selfie camera can shoot Full HD videos at 30fps. The phone comes with a 3.5mm headphone jack and could come in two colours-- Just Black and Barely Blue.

It is fitted with a 3,080mAh battery with support for 18W fast charging but skips out on wireless charging.

The 4a does have the company’s proprietary Titan M security chip but still misses out on the Pixel Neural Core. Also missing is the array of Soli radar chip and other sensors that debuted on the Pixel 4 last year. This, hopefully, indicates that Google could bring the Pixel 4a to India as the presence of Soli chip earlier on the Pixel 4 didn’t allow it to get certified for commercial use according to Indian laws.

https://ift.tt/2yTFjAX

Nintendo seen extending profit streak as housebound consumers switch on

https://ift.tt/2SmcGDj

Facebook Reports 'Signs of Stability' in Ad Spending After Coronavirus Drop

Facebook beat analysts' estimates for quarterly revenue on Wednesday and said it has seen "signs of stability" for sales in April after a plunge in March, in yet another signal that tech giants may... https://ift.tt/3aVTuTC

Meet EventBot, a new Android malware that steals banking passwords and two-factor codes

Security researchers are sounding the alarm over a newly discovered Android malware that targets banking apps and cryptocurrency wallets.

The malware, which researchers at security firm Cybereason recently discovered and called EventBot, masquerades as a legitimate Android app — like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Word for Android — which abuses Android’s in-built accessibility features to obtain deep access to the device’s operating system.

Once installed — either by an unsuspecting user or by a malicious person with access to a victim’s phone — the EventBot-infected fake app quietly siphons off passwords for more than 200 banking and cryptocurrency apps — including PayPal, Coinbase, CapitalOne and HSBC — and intercepts and two-factor authentication text message codes.

With a victim’s password and two-factor code, the hackers can break into bank accounts, apps and wallets, and steal a victim’s funds.

“The developer behind Eventbot has invested a lot of time and resources into creating the code, and the level of sophistication and capabilities is really high,” Assaf Dahan, head of threat research at Cybereason, told TechCrunch.

The malware quietly records every tap and key press, and can read notifications from other installed apps, giving the hackers a window into what’s happening on a victim’s device.

Over time, the malware siphons off banking and cryptocurrency app passwords back to the hackers’ server.

The researchers said that EventBot remains a work in progress. Over a period of several weeks since its discovery in March, the researchers saw the malware iteratively update every few days to include new malicious features. At one point the malware’s creators improved the encryption scheme it uses to communicate with the hackers’ server, and included a new feature that can grab a user’s device lock code, likely to allow the malware to grant itself higher privileges to the victim’s device like payments and system settings.

But while the researchers are stumped as to who is behind the campaign, their research suggests the malware is brand new.

“Thus far, we haven’t observed clear cases of copy-paste or code reuse from other malware and it seems to have been written from scratch,” said Dahan.

Android malware is not new, but it’s on the rise. Hackers and malware operators have increasingly targeted mobile users because many device owners have their banking apps, social media, and other sensitive services on their device. Google has improved Android security in recent years by screening apps in its app store and proactively blocking third-party apps to cut down on malware — with mixed results. Many malicious apps have evaded Google’s detection.

Cybereason said it has not yet seen EventBot on Android’s app store or in active use in malware campaigns, limiting the exposure to potential victims — for now.

But the researchers said users should avoid untrusted apps from third-party sites and stores, many of which don’t screen their apps for malware.

Millions downloaded dozens of Android apps from Google Play that were infected with adware

All you need to know about government's Rs 1 crore 'Zoom challenge'

https://ift.tt/3cuiUJ1

Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the pandemic, despite concerns about security, privacy, and effectiveness (New York Times)

New York Times:
Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the pandemic, despite concerns about security, privacy, and effectiveness — Dozens of tracking apps for smartphones are being used or developed to help contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Researcher: major sites like Wish and Mailchimp were leaking email addresses to ads and analytics companies including Facebook and Twitter via URL query strings (Zach Edwards)

Zach Edwards:
Researcher: major sites like Wish and Mailchimp were leaking email addresses to ads and analytics companies including Facebook and Twitter via URL query strings — Breaches have been found on websites including Wish.com, JetBlue.com, Quibi.com, WashingtonPost.com, NGPVan.com and numerous other organizations...

Google introduces new rules for the Chrome Web Store to cut down on spammy extensions, says developers must comply by August 27 or extensions will be delisted (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Google introduces new rules for the Chrome Web Store to cut down on spammy extensions, says developers must comply by August 27 or extensions will be delisted — Google plans to remove a bunch of garbage and useless Chrome extensions from the Web Store. — Google announced today new rules …