Newly discovered Android malware has infected thousands of devices

I'm not one to mince words or make you wait for the payoff, so I'll get right to the point. If you've purchased a T95 (or similar knockoff) streaming box that runs Android, chances are that your unit was shipped with pre-installed malware. But this isn't your ordinary piece of malware. Instead, we're looking at the possibility of two different Trojans: Badbox and Peachpit, both of which are pretty nasty bits of code. Also: Android 14 may have quietly fixed two major issues on the Google Pixel 6 and 7 One only needs to look at the extent of Badbox's spread, which has hit over 74,000 Android devices worldwide. But Badbox isn't just your average malware. Instead, we're looking at a rather complex, interconnected series of fraud schemes. Essentially, Badbox is a collection of firmware back doors that are installed via the regular hardware supply chain. Those devices get distributed into homes. Once booted and connected to a network, those devices immediately connect to what's called a command-and-control server, where they then receive their instructions. Badbox works with ad fraud, residential proxy services, fake email and messaging accounts, and the installation of malicious code. Peachpit is the ad fraud component of Badbox and can immediately start serving up ads for low-quality apps that, upon installation, will infect your devices with malicious code. This sort of attack has been around for years but they've grown more and more sophisticated. This time around, the cybercri...