Latest news with #Satori
Forbes
08-07-2025
- Forbes
If This App Is Installed On Your Smartphone, Delete It Now
Delete this app today. 'Exploitation for many issues on Android is made more difficult by enhancements in newer versions of the Android platform,' Google says. Maybe so. But a malicious threat that has been flagged many times in the past has just been found on Play Store again, attacking thousands of Android phones and putting users at risk. This should not happen. But it does. Even with some of the most prolific threats targeting Android users. As is the case this time around with Anatsa, a banking trojan that hijacks apps on your phone to steal your credentials and then your money. If your phone is infected with this malware, when you open your banking app you'll see an overlay screen telling you the app is down for schedule maintenance. But this fake overlay simply obscures the app as it is being attacked in the background. The developers behind the malware publish legitimate apps on Play Store and leave them alone while they garner downloads and (real or fake) reviews. Then the app is updated with the malware onboard. At that point the attacks start. Delete this app immediately. The latest warning comes courtesy of ThreatFabric, which has been tracking Anatsa for years. The app you need to delete if it's installed on your phone is 'Document Viewer — File Reader,' the exact type of free app from unknown sources you should avoid. ThreatFabric 'has been monitoring Anatsa's activity since 2020 and recognizes the group as one of the most prolific operators in the mobile crimeware landscape. Their campaigns have consistently demonstrated a high level of success.' The latest iteration of Anatsa has targeted users in North America, securing tens of thousands of installs. Anatsa returns repeatedly with these same tactics. Enabling Play Protect is critical, but also take care as to the number of free apps you install. Just days ago, we saw a warning from Satori as hundreds of apps were also found on Play Store attacking phones, in that instance with adware. Anatsa is more dangerous, but the advice to stay safe is broadly the same. If you do have the app installed, then check your accounts and change your passwords to be safe. Google has deleted the app from Play Store and will have updated Play Protect. But you need to delete it from your phone as well.
Forbes
03-07-2025
- Forbes
Google Play Store Warning—Find And Delete All Apps On This List
Delete all these apps from your smartphone Here we go again. A list of malicious apps has just been published and smartphone users are being urged to root out and delete any still on their devices. The latest report outs more than 350 apps responsible for more than a billion ad bid requests per day. This latest report comes courtesy of Human Security's Satori team, which says it has 'disrupted IconAds, a massive fraud operation involving hundreds of deceptive mobile apps that hide their presence and deliver unwanted ads.' this app campaign has been under investigation for some time, but is growing its viral presence. Satori says this 'highlights the evolving tactics of threat actors,' and that the scale of threats such as this are similar to BADBOX 2.0, the major IOT threat flagged by the FBI and Google, in which millions of smart TVs and other devices Here is the list of IconAds issued by Human; and here is the list of previously known apps flagged by other researchers before this latest report was published. This AdWare follows on the HiddenAds threat, but on a much larger scale. The malware takes over devices with unwanted fullscreen ads, generating revenue for its handlers. It even changes app icons top avoid detection and removal. Global IconAds campaign 'While these apps often have a short shelf life before they're removed from Google's Play Store,' Sartorial says, 'the continued new releases demonstrate the threat actors' commitment to further adaptation and evolution. Google has now deleted all of apps in the report fromPlay Store, and users with Play Protect enabled will be protected from those apps. But apps are not automatically deleted from devices, and so you should do this manually. In Satori's technical report, it warns that such is the scale of this operation it deployed a dedicated domain for every malicious app, which helped the team compile their list. 'These domains consistently resolve to a specific CNAME and return a specific message; this means that while the domains were different, they very likely shared the same back-end infrastructure or second-level C2. These and other unique parameters allowed Satori researchers to find more of these domains and associate them back to IconAds.' The team also warns that the app obfuscation was highly deceptive. In one instance, an app 'used a variation of the Google Play Store's own icon and name. When opened, it automatically redirects into the official app while working in the background.' Satori says 'the IconAds operation underscores the increasing sophistication of mobile ad fraud schemes. Ongoing collaboration across the digital advertising ecosystem is essential to disrupting these and future fraud operations.'
The Guardian
07-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Satori, Birmingham B13: ‘Pomposity chimed loudly in the air' – restaurant review
The last time I dined in affluent Moseley, south Birmingham, a few years back and in quite a fancy establishment, a fight broke out mid-meal. It was more drunken argy-bargy than fisticuffs, but enough to count as floor entertainment. Sadly, no spats occurred on my recent visit to Satori, an enlightening Japanese restaurant in the same postcode, though that's probably because it's so dark in there – black walls, black floors, black tables – that its customers wisely choose to remain safely seated. But this is not a Dans Le Noir-style themed restaurant where you eat in a blackout; no, it has instead merely been designed by someone who clearly really loves shiny, black surfaces with blood-red trimmings and busts of dragons. It's giving, as the kids say, 1980s MFI showroom doing international playboy lair. Or the time Adrian Mole painted over his Noddy wallpaper with black paint, but the gold hat bells kept gleaming through. Satori is inspired, the website says, by the Japanese concept of satori, a moment of 'awakening', and offers a dining experience 'that transcends the ordinary and becomes a journey of discovery, flavour, and connection'. That's a slightly pompous claim for somewhere that serves tuna and avocado maki, chicken wings, miso cod fillet and duck breast with honey and soy, but then pomposity chimed loudly in the air as we were led brusquely to our shiny table. We had ordered drinks from the small bar by the front door, a shiso fine made with Afsana Lion non-alcoholic spirit, red shiso and rhubarb and hibiscus tonic, plus a kendo made with Afsana Warrior, toasted rice tea, coconut water and sesame. Both sounded delicious, but they remained a dream because they never showed up. Did I maybe get off on the wrong foot with the front of house? Admittedly, there was a certain fractiousness from the moment I began ordering. 'We'll start with some sushi,' I said confidently. 'The sushi platter?' our server replied, guiding us to the £30 option. 'Well, how many pieces are on it?' I asked. 'Twelve,' he said, tapping his pad. 'And what then for starters?' 'Do we need starters?' I asked, having already seen several platters of rather cumbersome-looking maki and nigiri pass by. 'Yes, you'll need starters,' he said, curling a lip. 'Tea-smoked miso aubergine?' I said, hoping to placate him. 'Karaage?' 'And?' he said. 'Can we order mains now?' I said, ignoring his rolling eyes. My request for the black cod at £35 and the £30 lamb cutlets seemed to persuade him that we weren't just cluttering a table. A weird, dry, wilted cracker with spring onion and goat's curd appeared as an amuse-bouche. Then a plate – black slate, naturally – topped with salmon and tuna nigiri dressed with rather thickly sliced okra and some caviar, and a slightly stodgy dragon prawn tempura maki topped with pea shoots. This wasn't sushi worth making a special trip for, and pretty indistinguishable from the freshly rolled options at Waitrose. Next up came two thick slices of that tea-soaked aubergine, which was sweet, mushy and pleasant enough. Four small, thumbnail-sized pieces of karaage followed, which we'd been told had a layer of bonito under the drab, dry batter. Chopsticks were whisked away for our mains, which is when Satori ceased to push the boundaries of Japanese cuisine, ahem, and landed firmly in a 1990s UK pastiche of 'sophisticated Japanese', with a chunk of rather nice fish in a buttery miso sauce on a couple of pak choi leaves, and three deliciously plump, pink pepper-seasoned lamb chops with a few smears of yoghurt and some spindly heritage carrots, which owed more to Bengal than to Tokyo. This was the sort of dinner where you order dessert mainly out of sheer curiosity. 'The baked Mount Fuji!' I declared triumphantly. Within a matter of minutes, and certainly not within time actually to bake anything, a chunk of matcha ice-cream ensconced in sticky meringue was on our table, a shot of whisky was hurled over the top and the whole thing was then set ablaze. At this point, semi-hysteria set in, although that might have been the whisky fumes. After the flames abated, the plate – black, of course – was a mound of singed, still moist meringue mix sitting on some melted ice-cream and a puddle of whisky. You really can't put a price on that kind of excitement, although in this case it came to £12. Dinner was £168.77 including the warm service, but without the cocktails that, to date, are still being made in a very black room in Moseley. There wasn't a fight in the restaurant, but my purse took a battering. Satori 2c St Mary Row, Wake Green Road, Birmingham B13, 0121-537 4166. Open Tues-Thurs, dinner only, 5-10pm; Fri 1pm-10pm; Sat noon-11pm. From about £50 a head à la carte; tasting menu £75; 'signature' tasting menu £120, all plus drinks and service. The next episode of Grace's Comfort Eating podcast is out on Tuesday 11 March – listen to it here
