Today’s Cyberthreats: Paranoid Android, Chrome Partly Cracked
Each weekday, TechNewsDaily’s colleagues at SecurityNewsDaily give us a roundup on what’s worrying the guardians of cyberspace. Here’s what’s happening:
VIRTUAL THEFT, REAL CRIME: A British man admitted hacking into servers run by Zynga, maker of Facebook-based games such as FarmVille, FrontierVille and Mafia Wars – and stealing 40 billion “poker chips” for Zynga Poker. He then sold the virtual chips, worth $12 million, for about $81,000, and is facing an unspecified prison term.
PARANOID ANDROID: Google’s Web-based Android app market opened Thursday, and security experts are already worried. It turns out you can install an app on your Android phone remotely: All you need is a Google account linked to both the Web site and the handset. Anyone who guesses your Google password can install apps – including hidden malware – onto your phone without you knowing about it.
CHROME (PARTLY) CRACKED: For once, Mac users get to enjoy security woes as numerous holes are found in older builds of the OS X version of Chrome, Google’s otherwise remarkably secure Web browser. Users should upgrade to Chrome 9 to patch them. PC users don’t need to worry at least until next month – Google is offering $20,000 to anyone who can crack Chrome at the CanSecWest security conference in Vancouver, B.C.
