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Smartphone Malware Planted In Popular Apps Pre-sale

Posted by timothy on from the not-by-the-nsa-this-time dept.

An anonymous reader writes with news from The Stack that makes it a little harder to scoff at malware on phones as being largely the fruit of dodgy sideloaded software, game cracks, et cetera. They report that even phones marketed as brand new, from well-known brands like Lenovo and Xiaomi, have been tampered with and "infected prior to sale with intelligent malware disguised in popular apps such as Facebook." (To U.S. buyers, those makers may be slightly obscure as cellphone vendors; the scheme this article addresses involves handsets sold by vendors in Europe and Asia, involving more than 20 different handset types.)

2 of 42 comments (clear)

  1. Lenovo by Calydor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Does Lenovo make ANYTHING anymore that isn't full of malware?

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  2. Re:Not really ... by gstoddart · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the experience on your phone's browser sucks, that just means the website needs a better mobile site

    I find the vast majority of web sites with a mobile version are complete crap.

    You hit a site due to a search, get redirected to the crap which is their useless mobile site, and can never find what you're looking for because apparently mobile sites are written by morons who write useless sites.

    I can't tell you how many sites I have had to do the "request desktop site" for because they don't seem to realize a useless mobile site is worse and more broken than not having a mobile website in the first place.

    In my experience the mobile version of most websites are pointless, because they don't really work.

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