Researchers at Lookout Threat Lab have discovered close to 300 mobile loan applications on Google Play and the Apple App Store that exhibit predatory behavior such as exfiltrating excessive user data from mobile devices and harassing borrowers for repayment. These apps, which were found in Southeast Asian and African countries, as well as India, Colombia, and Mexico, purportedly offer quick, fully-digital loan approvals with reasonable loan terms.

Zero trust, if implemented well, is recognized by the industry as the best way to support remote and hybrid work, especially as workers everywhere connect to SaaS applications to stay productive. But securing an entire organization goes way beyond SaaS apps. Legacy apps running on-premises or in private clouds are still critical for many organizations, especially for those who have made hefty investments in storage and network appliances to support these important applications.

Over 60% of the world’s population relies on technology to navigate their daily lives — that’s over 5 billion people! Unfortunately, with such a large audience online, bad actors have turned to technology to deploy scams and make a profit. Scammers use an array of channels to target people with phishing and social engineering scams that appear real, in order to trick them into handing over valuable personal information.

In today’s digital world, we rely on our mobile devices to navigate much of our daily lives. Beyond making calls and sending text messages, we use our phones for online shopping, banking, work, personal reminders, photos, videos, and so much more. While this technology offers great possibilities and convenience, it also can put your personal data at risk.

Researchers from Lookout Threat Lab have uncovered two new surveillance campaigns targeting Uyghurs in the People’s Republic of China and abroad. One campaign introduces a novel Android surveillance tool we named BadBazaar that shares infrastructure with other previously encountered Uyghur-targeted tooling — as outlined in a 2020 whitepaper from the Lookout Threat Intelligence team.

Telework has become a mainstay, and with it, so has employee reliance on personal mobile devices. These devices are difficult to monitor and keep up to date, presenting a unique security challenge for U.S. local, state, and federal government organizations.