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Forbes
14 minutes ago
- Forbes
Delete Any App On Your Smartphone If You See This On Screen
Even as Google and Apple make headlines with new security features for Android and iPhone, the mobile threat landscape has never been worse. Your phone is under attack from malicious texts and emails, malware-laced apps, even over-the-air threats. Some of this is hard to detect. But one message on screen is a glaring red flag. It's fairly straightforward to ensure your phone — the digital key to your life — is better protected. Do not click links or download unexpected attachments; do not install apps from outside official stores; and always run an updated version of the phone's OS. It should be that simple, but it's not. There are upwards of a billion smartphones that are running outdated operating systems that no longer receive security updates. Sideloading apps from emails, messages and third-party stores remains popular. And hardly a week goes by without news of new text or email attacks claiming victims. But there is one safeguard that really is simple. It stops attackers hijacking devices and taking control of your cameras and microphone. It prevents current threats such as LumaSpy and PlayPraetor from carrying out their worst. And it makes it immeasurably more difficult for bad actors to run riot on your device. We're talking accessibility services, permissions which grant wholesale access to a phone. 'Your app must use platform-level accessibility services only for the purpose of helping users with disabilities interact with your app,' Google says. But alas this is the golden ticket for malware developers. All they need to do is trick you into saying yes. The 'power' of these accessibility services is such that 'very few official apps will mess with it for fear of attracting the wrath of Google,' Bitdefender says. But unfortunately, 'malicious apps don't have the same qualms,' and 'many types of malware will try to gain access to this permission as a way to take over control and monitor devices.' Google has locked down accessibility services. But 'the security enhancements aimed at limiting abuse of Android's accessibility services have been systematically circumvented by sophisticated malware loaders. This has enabled a new generation of banking trojans, keyloggers, and remote access tools to persistently target users.' The screenshots above (courtesy of Zimperium) illustrate what you need to look for. Any app you have installed that asks for 'full control' is a serious risk. Unless you have downloaded an app that requires control of a device given your own personal needs, it's dangerous to grant these permissions. You should delete the app.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
No more deploy beacon clown cars for recon players in Battlefield 6—the assault class will get them instead: 'We're intentionally redefining it as a teamplay tool for frontline flanking'
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Ever played a Battlefield game and watched, haplessly, as some jerk with a sniper rifle makes a camp in a hard-to-reach building and turns it into a clown car? Well, that's not gonna be how Battlefield 6 does it anymore. That's according to an X post from the Battlefield Comms account ahead of the Battlefield 6 open beta. Namely, via changes made to the classes' various gadget pools. It reads: "We've renamed the Spawn Beacon to Deploy Beacon, and it's now part of the Assault class gadget pool, instead of Recon. "Although the Deploy Beacon has traditionally been a staple of the Recon class, it hasn't been without its challenges, often being used by solo snipers to redeploy in hard-to-reach places. By moving it to the Assault class, we're intentionally redefining it as a teamplay tool for frontline flanking and coordinated squad movement." Essentially, instead of having one, difficult-to-get-to clown car, the Assault class will now be incentivised to drop a bunch of guys in a flanking position, creating a slightly more mobile, shorter-lived clown car. More importantly, one that isn't just used selfishly to keep a wannabe sniper perpetually camping the same spot for the entire game. There'll be some changes to how the beacon works, as well: "The Deploy Beacon has a finite number of uses per squad and will self-destruct if the Assault player spawns back on it, making it a tactical and limited resource rather than a persistent advantage. We believe this addresses concerns around Assault being too focused on solo-play." So what are Recon players getting in exchange? A new training path, which'll be replacing Pathfinder. At Spec Ops 0, Recons will get "quieter takedowns, crouch and prone movement." At Spec Ops 1, they'll receive the ability to spot "nearby enemy gadgets (except when sprinting)", allowing them to get revenge on all the Assault players using the Spawn Beacons they don't get anymore. And, lastly, at Spec Ops 3, "going prone takes you out of combat much faster and removes the spot on self." But that's not all. "In addition, the Recon class features an Active Ability at Level 3 that lets you call in a UAV to a marked position for passive spotting, further enhancing your squad's situational awareness." All of this means you'll be able to play a Recon like, well, an actual sniper—spotting and marking targets, rather than consigning your teammates to a perpetually long runbacks that'd make a FromSoftware veteran weep, all because you want to score some clips for the highlight reel. And, hey. If you still want to use Spawn Beacons with a sniper rifle, there'll be open weapon rulesets available to relive the glory days of doing absolutely nothing for anybody.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The Battlefield 6 beta has broken Call of Duty's Steam player count record, surging past half a million concurrents
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. First spotted by Battlefield Bulletin on Twitter, Battlefield 6's open beta is doing spectacularly well on Steam: Around 500,000 concurrent players at the time of writing, down from a peak of 521,079 according to SteamDB. That puts the BF6 beta at 18th place for peak concurrents in Steam history, two spots ahead of the unified Call of Duty app's peak of 491,670 players in November 2022. Some caveats on the Call of Duty comparison: Steam concurrents never show the whole picture for multiplatform games, and even on PC, CoD's numbers are complicated by and especially Game Pass, which assuredly blunted Black Ops 6's Steam peak last year. But this is still an insanely impressive showing for an open beta, and more supporting evidence that the recently rather one-sided CoD-Battlefield rivalry could be a real race this year. PCG FPS expert Morgan Park certainly thinks so on quality grounds, while former Blizzard president Mike Ybara seems to be rooting against his former team with prognostications in favor of Battlefield 6. For a more apples to apples comparison of player counts, The Battlefield 6 beta was already the most-played game in the series on Steam on its first day of availability, when it was only playable by Battlefield Labs members. It now has five times the number of players as Battlefield 2042's peak player count set in 2023, two years after launch and buoyed by its long comeback tour. You can still get in on the action this weekend, and EA will run another open beta next weekend from Thursday August 14 through Sunday August 17. EA has shared instructions on how to access the beta on its website—it's another one of those Twitch stream code drop deals. Battlefield 6 will release in full on October 10, and blessedly isn't an $80 game—just a $70 one. Chump change for a high roller like me. Walkin' around money. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releasesBest PC games: Our all-time favoritesFree PC games: Freebie festBest FPS games: Finest gunplayBest RPGs: Grand adventuresBest co-op games: Better together
