Russia is proposing a rule that all foreigners in Moscow install a tracking app on their phones. > Using a mobile application that all foreigners will have to install on their > smartphones, the Russian state will receive the following information: > > * Residence location > * Fingerprint > * Face photograph > * Real-time geo-location monitoring This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this. Qatar did it in 2022 around the World Cup: > “After accepting the terms of these apps, moderators will have complete > control of users’ devices,” he continued. “All personal content, the ability > to edit it, share it, extract it as well as data from other apps on your > device is in their hands. Moderators will even have the power to unlock users’ > devices remotely.” ...

Android phones will soon reboot themselves after sitting idle for three days. iPhones have had this feature for a while; it’s nice to see Google add it to their phones.

Kaspersky is reporting on a new type of smartphone malware. > The malware in question uses optical character recognition (OCR) to review a > device’s photo library, seeking screenshots of recovery phrases for crypto > wallets. Based on their assessment, infected Google Play apps have been > downloaded more than 242,000 times. Kaspersky says: “This is the first known > case of an app infected with OCR spyware being found in Apple’s official app > marketplace.” That’s a tactic I have not heard of before.

This tool seems to do a pretty good job. > The company’s Mobile Threat Hunting feature uses a combination of malware > signature-based detection, heuristics, and machine learning to look for > anomalies in iOS and Android device activity or telltale signs of spyware > infection. For paying iVerify customers, the tool regularly checks devices for > potential compromise. But the company also offers a free version of the > feature for anyone who downloads the iVerify Basics app for $1. These users > can walk through steps to generate and send a special diagnostic utility file > to iVerify and receive analysis within hours. Free users can use the tool once > a month. iVerify’s infrastructure is built to be privacy-preserving, but to > run the Mobile Threat Hunting feature, users must enter an email address so > the company has a way to contact them if a scan turns up spyware—as it did in > the seven recent Pegasus discoveries...