Hi everyone,
I hope you’re having a good Friday and survived Halloween, or the Samhain, as it was originally called in Ireland.
The Samhain is an ancient Celtic feast day that marked the end of autumn and the beginning of winter. It’s also a time when the veil between the two worlds is thin. This is why people dress up on Halloween, it’s a throwback to how our ancestors used to disguise themselves so that the spirits would not recognise them when the two worlds crossed 🙂 Now, people dress up for fun, but back in the day, the costumes were protective disguises!!. Imagine if our ancestors could see us now 🙂
Okay, here are a few things I want to make you aware of today. We will start with the identification of a popular government surveillance tool that is being used to track the location of pretty much anybody with a smartphone. We will also talk about how Facebook adverts are being controlled by cybercriminals to trick you into installing malware and viruses on your phone. I will also make you aware of a new form of malware called ‘fake call’ which essentially, allows remote attackers to intercept your phone calls and redirect them anywhere they want.
If you have any concerns or problems, contact me through the Incognito application for Android. We will have a version for iOS very soon. In fact, we did have a version for iOS but we had to take it down while we restructured internally. I’m happy to report that iOS will be back out by the end of November.
But, please do let me know, whether you are a small business owner or an individual concerned about your security. We have seen everything, we can help you with anything. All you have to do is ask :-). Also, we’ve been giving Incognito away for free from the very beginning so if you want to contact me in an emergency and you cannot afford to pay for ‘the talk to an expert function’, that is not a problem. Security is for everybody, not just for those who can afford it.
Ok, let’s get started with the naming and shaming of a company called Babel Street and their product locate X.
Population Surveillance- Locate X
Have you ever heard of a company called Babel Street (Here is a link to their website), or their product called Locate X? That’s okay, most people have never heard of them, but, what you need to know is that they have a system that can track the location of any phone in the world, pretty much in real-time. They can also view historical data, for example, they can bring up a section on the map and draw a square around an area and they can see what phones have been there in the past. They mostly sell the technology to governments and have done deals with the Australian government and the American government going as far back as 2021.
Here is how they do it:
You may not know this, but every phone and therefore every person has an advertising ID. The ID doesn’t directly store likes or dislikes, but it builds a profile of your activity, like the websites you visit and the applications you use. Sometimes it seems that it can predict what your interests are too. Have you ever talked about buying something and then you see advertisements appearing for it within hours of the conversation? Your tracking ID follows you everywhere you go and gathers details about you based on location and behaviour. Locate X uses this ID, amongst other things to track your location and movements.
But what can you do?
* You can reset your advertising ID on your device. While this will reduce tracking, it won’t completely stop products like locate X from gathering new location data tied to the refreshed ID. It is good practice though to reset the ID regularly. Now, doing this will mean you will get less personalised advertisements. So, the choice is yours.:
On Android: Go to Settings > Privacy > Ads and choose Reset Advertising ID.
On iPhone: Go to Settings > Privacy > Tracking and turn off Allow Apps to Request to Track to limit app tracking.
* For a more comprehensive approach, combine resetting the ID with other measures:
– Limit ad personalization: Disable interest-based ads in your device settings.
– Review and restrict app permissions: Limit which apps can access your location.
– Disable location services when not in use: This can help reduce data capture.
For more information you can read this article in the Guardian titled ‘Location tracking, meet abortion bans – authoritarians have too much power’
Fake call apps – a new strain of Android malware.
Here is a great article by Zak Doffman from Forbes where he talks about a surge in fake call apps being distributed through the Google Play Store. The applications themselves when you install them are very innocent but as soon as they get installed, the developer side loads additional functionality into the application turning it into a spy tool. They can get past all of the restrictions from Google as the first version is safe but as soon as they get installed, the same security practices are not applied by Google when it comes to updating the application.
What’s the malware has been activated on your device it is capable of controlling your incoming and outgoing calls. This means that your phone calls are being controlled via a remote hacker who can for example get your phone to connect with a premium rate telephone number which will cost you many hundreds if not thousands of Euro. Another example of an action is where the latest version of fake call redirects bank calls to a scammer. So, if you call your bank you are instead connected to a scammer who pretends to be your bank. You can see how dangerous this is.
Government Espionage
Here is a great article from the register which talks about how Chinese attackers accessed the Canadian government networks for over five years. This article just goes to show you that even governments, with all of their resources, and all of their expertise are still vulnerable to attacks, just like the rest of us.
Over the years, I’ve seen examples of some of the most secure places on Earth being remotely infiltrated. One example involved a huge defence contractor that made very special aircraft for government customers. They discovered after several years, that an attacker had been accessing their networks for years, stealing the designs for a top secret aircraft. After they had tracked them down, this particular customer made the genius move of hiring these people to protect their systems from future attacks.
If you’re going to secure a bank vault you may as well get the person who broke into it to secure it :-).
Malicious ads on Facebook.
Facebook is currently being targeted by cyber attackers, by creating malicious had designed to trick you into downloading a virus. Facebook should be able to stop this, and I’m sure that they will get to the bottom of it eventually but for now, and always, as good practice, be careful what advertisement you click on. You can read more here.
Update Google Chrome immediately.
Google has just released a critical update to fix two very severe zero-day vulnerabilities in the Google Chrome web browser. These vulnerabilities are currently being exploited by cybercriminals. Please go and update Google Chrome immediately. If you need any help with this let me know.
Business watch
For all the business owners, here is an article explaining how Disney has taken one of their previous employees to court after he had accessed their systems after he had been fired, in order to cause damage. You can read the full article here, but it is just a reminder for all business owners to make sure that when they stop working with an employee or a contractor they close down the person’s account so that they cannot access the systems. There is nothing worse than a disenchanted ex-employee with access to your systems. Now, if it has already happened to you, most of the time these people leave a trail of breadcrumbs to their front door. We can help you to protect yourself, and also we can help you to identify.
Okay, that’s it for me until Sunday. Let me know, if you need anything at all.
I wish you all the best,
Max Roberts.