Mobile Ads May Serve As a Malware Conduit

alphadogg writes with this excerpt from Network World: "Many mobile apps include ads that can threaten users' privacy and network security, according to North Carolina State University researchers. The National Science Foundation-funded researchers studied 100,000 apps in Google Play (formerly Android Market) and found that more than half contained ad libraries, nearly 300 of which were enabled to grab code from remote servers that could give malware and hackers a way into your smartphone or tablet. 'Running code downloaded from the Internet is problematic because the code could be anything,' says Xuxian Jiang, an assistant professor of computer science at NC State."

Comments

ad block effect

[vlm]

I suspect the "ad block effect" that I'm used to from years of firefox will exist on android very soon. "(shock amazement) Thats what the unfiltered internet looks like now? how can anyone use that? (insert more shock amazement)"

Re:Anything like adblock

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

If you have root access, the underlying linux(while spare) isn't terribly alien, fucking with DNS would be a definite option). If not, You Are Product.

Adware? Malware? What's the difference?

[KiloByte]

Wasn't it the case just several years ago that "adware" and "malware" were considered to be mostly synonyms? I don't see why, just because the plarform changed, they would behave any differently. You're back to the Bonzi Buddy "goodness".

I just stay away from any "App Stores" and "Foo Markets". A Debian chroot (when there are no native builds) means the code I run can be trusted.