A Chinese no-name Galaxy S4 knock-off allegedly comes pre-loaded with spyware:
For the first time ever, the experts at the German security vendor have discovered a smartphone that comes with extensive spyware straight from the factory. The malware is disguised as the Google Play Store and is part of the pre-installed Android apps. The spyware runs in the background and cannot be detected by users. Unbeknownst to the user, the smartphone sends personal data to a server located in China and is able to covertly install additional applications.
The news comes from a security firm, so take it with a grain of salt, but still – this is exactly the kind of stuff legitimate Chinese manufacturers really do not want.
‘Star’ is a generic phone brand used by a wide variety of mushroom manufacturers. In China even the better known clones are themselves counterfeited.
From what I heard it CAN be discovered by users and has been confirmed on several different types of devices (S9500 and N9500 if memory serves me right)
This is REALLY bad, but not the first time that this happens. Just the headline “Chinese….” is new. Previously this happend with some Harddisks/USB for example but nobody mentioned the origin (country) at that time. This fits with the mantra of “Chinese spyware” that we keep hearing about lately
Well… This certainly isn’t nice and will be (mis)used to bash on Chinese brands but… I don’t really see a big problem here…
It’s a question of choosing where to spend your money.
You wouldn’t buy software on crackedwarezsoft.ru (invented) with your credit card nor would you ask the first one you cross in the street to bring your money to the bank for you.
It’s the same problem with second hand phones (including Jailbroken iPhones). You can never know what you’ll find on them.
Choose wisely the company from which you purchase your phone and you will never have a problem. There are enough “safe†brands, also in china, not to be frustrated with that
While the facts are certainly true the hype about it and being labeled “Chinese” is probably just to distract that such things are happening here as well on the same scale. That would be the next question a good journalist would raise: do these things happen here too?
Like father, like son.
What is the difference between this phone and the too-cheap-to-be-true Chinese phones previously given good reviews on this site? Answer: This manufacturer didn’t do a very good job of hiding the spyware.
Thom, consider yourself warned. China has been spying on its own citizens longer than the USA, China has more practice at making its phones (excuse the upcoming pun) “phone home”.
To come up with this kind of statements, you at least need two things for sure:
1. you need to know exactly how long the Chinese government has been monitoring its citizen.
2. you need to know exactly how long the US government has been monitoring its citizen.
I do believe you know neither.
The risk of something like this is there regardless of where your phone is made and who the manufacturer is. Only a complete fool would actually trust & believe <fill in company name here> vigilantly protects their privacy.
Newsflash! We’re living in a surveillance society. If you don’t expect this is happening, you have some catching up to do. And btw, it’s not as if spying is something new. Technology has only made it more invasive and widespread but this is `what people do`.
Ya, if I have a device in my pocket that can phone home my location at any time, I figure it pretty much is. In fact, I would be surprised if it wasn’t. What does this mean to me? It means I’m not going to bring my phone when I commit my next murder
If you carry around devices like this, you’re going to be tracked. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not. It’s just a fact of life.
Edited 2014-06-19 01:16 UTC
Nothing strange here, the phone was probably meant for domestic Chinese users
I currently work in China and I would be very skeptical of any Chinese phone with Google Play Store installed, Chinese phones just do not have anything Google installed. In fact at the moment all Google on the internet is blocked or throttled down so slow it is unusable – at the moment the internet without a VPS connection is almost unusable because of the restrictions on Google etc.
I would guess that this phone is trying to target non-Chinese users and is a private enterprise initiative.
I’ve just bought a Chinese phone a Lenovo a880 and spent a day hacking it which is essential, root so that the 12-13 Chinese start up apps can be removed, plus all the other bloatware, then Gapps needs installing. Shame really as the phone is quite nice as was the Yepen phone I had before.
Edited 2014-06-19 03:14 UTC
There is spyware loaded onto every Android phone, you can see it phoning home all the time sending out encrypted sensitive information after collecting from every app present on the phone.
I believe security researchers have named the infection “Play Store” or “Google Play”.
Probably no one will read this now due to such a late post, but I came across this old news bit.
http://www.osnews.com/story/25384/CarrierIQ_Rootkit_Found_on_Androi…
I read it.