pcmag.com Thousands of Android Devices Come With a Hidden Backdoor

[bonami2]

Quote

This week, cybersecurity firm Human Security shared a little more about this issue, notably how many devices are infected, Wired reports.

The company found seven Android TV boxes and one tablet with backdoors installed, and the group found signs that 200 different models of Android devices might potentially be impacted, the magazine reports.

 

Specifically, the devices in question are the T95, T95Z, T95MAX, X88, Q9, X12PLUS, and MXQ Pro 5G, and a tablet J5-W. The devices are often sold unbranded or under different names, often making them hard to locate.

When you plug the device in, it downloads a set of instructions from China and starts “doing a bunch of bad stuff,” researchers say, ranging from creating fake Gmail and WhatsApp accounts using your connection to selling access to your home network to others.

Thousands of Android Devices Come With a Hidden Backdoor

WWW.PCMAG.COM

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Your cheap Android TV streaming box might be facilitating cybercrime.

 

[Snakecharmed]

This is not unexpected for these unbranded or Scrabble hand named devices running an outdated version of Android on a chipset that nobody's ever heard of. If I'm going to use a Chinese-branded and marketed item (of which I do have several, including some that I'll even swear by like my DAC and some that I won't like my soup ladle), it's not going to be an item that can connect to the Internet.

 

Years ago back when I cared about TV, I looked into these types of devices for Kodi. By the time I found one that had a respectable hardware spec, I would have been better off getting an Nvidia Shield TV. I ended up just configuring that stuff to work on an $40 Amazon Fire TV Stick and called it a day.

Edited October 10, 2023 by Snakecharmed

[EHW Ai]

53 minutes ago, Snakecharmed said:

Years ago back when I cared about TV, I looked into these types of devices for Kodi. By the time I found one that had a respectable hardware spec, I would have been better off getting an Nvidia Shield TV. I ended up just configuring that stuff to work on an $40 Amazon Fire TV Stick and called it a day.

 

One of the main guys who was selling all of those boxes got 5 1/2 years.

 

Local YouTube star sentenced to 5½ years, ordered to forfeit $30M in large-scale cable piracy case

WWW.INQUIRER.COM

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Bill Omar Carrasquillo amassed a $30 million fortune selling access to streaming cable TV content hijacked from set-top boxes at prices as low as $15 a month.

 

[bonami2]

12 hours ago, TonyBombassolo said:

 

One of the main guys who was selling all of those boxes got 5 1/2 years.

 

Local YouTube star sentenced to 5½ years, ordered to forfeit $30M in large-scale cable piracy case

WWW.INQUIRER.COM

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Bill Omar Carrasquillo amassed a $30 million fortune selling access to streaming cable TV content hijacked from set-top boxes at prices as low as $15 a month.

 

5 years for 30m not bad deal!