Software
Android malware shuts your phone down – or does it?
A new “strain” of Android malware has been spotted this week and it’s a particularly nasty one, prompting us to think about actually installing battery – and memory – consuming antivirus applications on our phones. Antivirus apps on phones aren’t really popular because they do consume a lot of juice, RAM, and take up a fair amount of space on your Android device. But the appearance of this new type of Android malware might make you change your mind and sacrifice Facebook for the sake of your security and an antivirus program.
The new Android malware was discovered by the AVG antivirus security team and it’s quite mischievous, to say the least. Apparently, the Android malware will actually trick you into believing your phone is shutting down, which should already be a sign that something is wrong with your phone. In fact, your phone is not shutting down, as it remains alive after you’ve witnessed the animations and can see that your screen is black. The Android malware will actually gain root permission (wow).
Android malware sending messages, image courtesy of AVG
The AVG team determined that the Android malware actually “hijacks the shutting down process”, and while your phone is seemingly off as far as you know, the malware keeps on working its magic in the background. If you’re wondering what it’s doing, prepare yourself, as it’s not nice. The malware will actually send your existing messages, or even new ones, to unidentified third parties. If that doesn’t seem like such a worrisome thing, you should know that it will probably show up on your phone bill, for one. Moreover, the Android malware can actually record a call, take photos, record voice, video and whatnot, which means that it’s actually in total control of your device. Frightening, right?
The malware has been dubbed the Android/PowerOffl-lojack.A by the AVG team we can thank for spotting the thing. According to the team, AVG will protect you from the threat (what else would a company and security team behind an antivirus software say, I wonder), but they still advise users who suspect they are infected to take the battery out of their phone to stop it from working its evil in the background. From what I understood from the report, you aren’t vulnerable unless you shut your phone down, so I feel lucky because I never turn my phone off. Come to think of it, now I’m officially afraid to do so, because I do have messages I’d rather not see go public (wink). AVG hasn’t made it clear where one could have picked up the Android malware doing these evil things. I wonder…
Twitter rival, Threads, owned by Meta, now allows account switching without logging out.
This Thursday, the social networking app announced that users can swap accounts on its mobile apps by long pressing the bottom right profile icon. Tap “Add profile” after the long press to add a profile.
Users can easily switch between work and personal profiles. Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri did not say if the profile-switching feature allowed you to add a limit of accounts.
On the same day as Facebook allowed multiple personal profiles on Blue, the text-based social networking app announced its profile feature.
Threads keeps adding features three months after its launch. It began testing full-text search in New Zealand and Australia late last month. The company launched global search this month.
Threads added 24-hour post notifications and web quote functionality in September.
Threads’ competitors ship features in a competitive social media landscape. Mastodon released version 4.2 this week with improved profile and post search, automatic quick action suggestions in the search box, a new web interface with thread indicators and article previews, and a Privacy and Reach settings tab.
X owner Elon Musk suggested today that Twitter may no longer be free. Musk said the business was “moving to a small monthly payment” for the X system in a live-streamed meeting with Netanyahu on Monday. He suggested such a tweak to address platform bots.
Musk said, “It’s the only way I can think of to combat vast armies of bots.” According to him, bots have a high effective cost due to their low cost (a tenth of a penny), even though they require a few dollars. Each bot creator needed a new payment method to make another bot.
Musk said the new subscription price would be a “small amount of money.”
Musk also announced that X now has 550 million monthly users and 100 to 200 million daily postings. Musk’s stats may include automated accounts, either good bots like news feeds or malicious bots like spammers.
This figure couldn’t be compared to Twitter’s pre-Musk user base, which was computed using mDAU, Twitter’s own metric. This earlier statistic identified Twitter users who may be monetized by adverts. Twitter reported 229 million mDAUs in Q1 2022.
Musk did not specify when he would charge for X. Since Musk took over the network last year, it has been pushing users to subscribe to X Premium (formerly Twitter Blue). This $8 per month or $84 per year subscription service lets you modify posts, reduce the ad load, prioritize search and conversation rankings, make lengthier posts, and more.
X doesn’t divulge its paying subscribers, but independent research shows X Premium doesn’t attract most customers. X Premium has 827,615 subscribers, according to one estimate.
Musk has considered charging everyone for X. In fact, Platformer claimed last year that Musk was considering a Twitter paywall.
Though hate speech on X came up, Musk and Netanyahu discussed AI technologies and regulation today. Musk called himself “against antisemitism” and “anything that promotes hate and conflict.” Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League, which has accused Musk and X of antisemitism, in his latest fight.
For paid users, X, formerly Twitter, has implemented government ID-based account verification to prevent impersonation and provide “prioritized support.”
Social media partner Au10tix provides identity verification solutions from Israel. The ID verification pop-up says the Au10tix can store this data for 30 days.
X’s verification support page says ID verification is available in “numerous countries,” but not in the EU, EEA, or UK. The region’s strict data protection laws likely explain this.
ID-based verification seems unnecessary and rarely beneficial. The company may age-gate content based on ID age.
“X currently focuses on account authentication to prevent impersonation and may explore additional measures, such as ensuring users have access to age-appropriate content and protecting against spam and malicious accounts, to maintain platform integrity and healthy conversations,” it said.
Users who pass the verification badge will receive a government ID verification note. Only clicking the blue checkmark on the profile page shows it. The company said ID-verified users will get “prioritized support from X Services,” but this is unclear.
The company allowed paid users to hide checkmarks from their profiles last month.
X plans to speed up checkmark reviews if users verify their IDs. Plus, they can frequently change their names, usernames, and profile photos without losing the checkmark.
Only paid users can use ID-based verification. Ironically, X promotes impersonation and spam reduction but doesn’t offer verification tools to all users.
Twitter discontinued legacy verification and removed account checkmarks in April. However, the company reinstated the top account checkmark after much chaos.
The social network added biometric data, education, and job history to its privacy policy last month.
“This will additionally help us tie, for those that choose, an account to a real person by processing their government-issued ID,” X told Bloomberg. “This will also help X fight impersonation attempts and secure the platform.”
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