Hackers Exploit Ad Networks to Launch Phishing Attacks against Android Users

The hackers are exploiting mobile ad networks that take the android users to malicious websites. After this, hackers can either steal personal user information or attack the victim's Android device with spams. The Google play store has more than 400 apps that come with ads as a means to generate money for app developers. But recently, the hackers are exploiting these ad networks with the help of an SDK (Software Development Kit). The SDKs help app developers earn money, and the hackers are inserting code to attack the ad network.

According to the research done by Wandera, which is a mobile security firm, the hackers send domain and URLs to the users via the ads. The distribution systems are called Startapp, that allows the hackers to swamp the android device with spams and malicious websites. Startapp isn't responsible for any of the malicious content distributed. However, it is funded by a few agencies that distribute its malicious content. Startapp hasn't responded to the questions of its involvement in this cyberattack. "Our researchers wanted to explore a service that wasn't associated with a single well-known advertiser, such as Google or Facebook, so they took a closer look at the framework from StartApp, which would presumably provide app developers with ads from a wider variety of advertising networks," says Wandera' research report.

It also says that more than 90% of the distributed through the Startapp framework originate from a single ad provider. Wandera, however, didn't identify the provider's name, but Cyberscoop has identified it as "AdSalsa." AdSalsa is a digital marketing firm that operates from Spain and is responsible for ads that direct users to these malicious websites.

"We help app publishers and developers turn their apps into successful businesses by using advanced data insights to identify relevant campaigns across direct and programmatic channels for each publisher's unique users. Over 400,000 apps have already integrated our lightweight, easy to incorporate advertising SDK. When combined with our mediation options, you can begin earning revenue from your apps in minutes," says StartApp on its website. Experts at Wandera found 700 apps on Google play store using StartApp's SDK feature. Google, however, has removed 47% of these SDKs, according to Wandera. The exploitation of this advertising, which has now become malvertising, is creating problems for the app developers to secure their apps.

source https://www.ehackingnews.com/2020/05/hackers-exploit-ad-networks-to-launch.html

Comments

Provider Volia reported to the cyber police about the intense cyberattacks on the server

Cable provider Volia appealed to the Cyber Police on the fact of fixing a DDoS attack on the Kharkov servers of the company, which has been ongoing since May 31. "For three days, from May 31 to today, the Volia infrastructure in Kharkov is subjected to cyberattacks. At first, they were carried out only on subscriber subsystems, later they switched to telecommunications infrastructure. As a result, more than 100,000 subscribers experienced problems using the Internet, IPTV, multi-screen platform, and digital TV," said the company. In total, the complete lack of access to Volia's services, according to the provider, lasted 12 minutes on May 31, 45 minutes on June 1. There was also an attack on the website volia.com, but it was managed to neutralize. "DDoS attacks were massive and well-organized. The type of attack is UDP flood and channel capacity overflow with the traffic of more than 200 GB. UDP is a protocol used for online streaming services - streaming, te...

Information security experts have warned Russians about bonus card fraud schemes.

Fraudsters several thousand times tried to illegally take advantage of discount bonuses of Russians in 2019. Some attackers gained access to customers' personal accounts, and then bought the products using bonuses, said Alexey Sizov, head of the anti-fraud department of the Application Security Systems Center at Jet Infosystems. According to him, a fraudster can register a personal account on a card that was issued to another person. The victim will accumulate points without knowing about the existence of his profile, and the attacker will write off bonuses, said Sizov. The expert added that this is mainly done by novice scammers. According to him, loyalty programs are poorly protected, unlike banking operations. He said that they are estimated at 50 billion rubles ($760 milliard) for the 30 largest retailers. Alexey Fedorov, Chairman of the Business Russia Trade Committee, said that in 2019, the number of bonus and discount thefts "increased significantly." ...

Apple Plans to Expand Cloud-Based Services, Enters Cloud Computing Space

Apple is planning to invest more in streamlines and increasing its cloud-based and software services like iCloud, Newsplus, and Apple Music. The expansion will go along with devices like iPads, MacBooks, and iPhones. To be entirely sure about the reliability of the cloud-based service on all the Apple devices, the company has decided to rely on AWS (Amazon Web Services) and the cloud division. AWS, as you might know, is a subunit of Amazon that offers cloud-space solutions. According to CNBC's findings, Apple is said to pay Amazon $30 Million monthly for its cloud-based services. It also means that Apple is one of the biggest customers of AWS. Nevertheless, Apple hasn't confirmed whether it uses Amazon's cloud services besides its iCloud. According to experts, Apple also has some of its cloud services on Google. Amazon transformed the management of the data center and hosting of the applications when it brought the AWS. Being the first one to offer services like these,...

Hacking and Cyber Security News

Search This Blog