android

Australia has delivered a strong blow to tech giant Google. The company will pay a fine of 55 million Australian dollars ($35.8 million USD) after the country’s competition watchdog found it had abused its market power.

💻 Deals with Telecom Operators Restricted Competition
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) revealed that between 2019–2021, Google signed deals with the country’s two largest telecom operators – Telstra and Optus. These agreements ensured that the Google Search app was pre-installed on Android devices, significantly reducing the visibility of competing search providers.
According to ACCC chair Gina-Cass Gottlieb, this move undermined fair competition and limited choice for millions of Australians.

⚖️ Google Admits Misconduct
Google acknowledged that its practices harmed competition and agreed to pay the fine. The company also promised to provide device manufacturers with greater freedom to install alternative browsers and search apps.
“We are committed to offering flexibility while maintaining features that help innovate and remain competitive against Apple,” a Google spokesperson said.
Telstra and Optus also confirmed they are cooperating with the regulator and will stop making similar deals with Google starting in 2024.

🎮 Google and Apple Under Pressure Over App Stores
The ruling comes just days after another setback for Google. An Australian court sided with Epic Games, the creators of Fortnite, who argued that Apple and Google abused their control over app distribution and in-app payments.
According to Epic, both giants imposed excessive fees and blocked alternative app stores, undermining fair competition in the app market. The judgment suggests that app stores lacked safeguards to protect competitive practices.

📉 More Troubles for Alphabet
The fine in Australia caps off a difficult week for Google’s parent company Alphabet, which is facing mounting global criticism and regulatory scrutiny over its monopolistic practices.

❓ Do you think actions like this will finally open the door for smaller competitors, or will Google remain the untouchable leader?

#Google , #Australia , #DigitalMarket , #worldnews , #Android

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Hey! Imagine this: you lost your phone or it got stolen. You think, "Scary, but not critical. I have a PIN, Face ID, and I didn’t save my MetaMask seed phrase anywhere." It seems like your accounts are safe.
Well, not quite. Researchers from Ledger have just proven that physical access to your Android smartphone = access to all your hot wallets on it. This isn’t about hacking software—it’s a direct hardware-level attack on the phone’s processor itself.
What did they do?
They took a popular MediaTek chip (found in many mid-range smartphones) and used electromagnetic pulses to "break" it at the most fundamental level—during boot-up. It’s like not picking the lock but remotely reprogramming it to open on command.
The technical gist (in short):
A special device directs electromagnetic pulses into the chip.This triggers a glitch in the most protected part—the boot ROM.Using this glitch, attackers can gain full control over the processor (the highest privilege level, EL3).That’s it. After that, they can easily extract private keys from any installed wallet (Trust Wallet, MetaMask, etc.).
The whole process takes a few minutes, and the success rate, according to their data, is up to 1%. For an attacker who has your device, that’s more than enough.
Why does this matter for you and me?
Phones get stolen and lost. This isn’t some mythical internet threat—it’s an everyday reality.Hot wallets on phones are at risk. Ledger clearly states that their hardware wallets (and similar devices) are unaffected because they have a secure chip designed specifically to counter such attacks.The chipmaker (MediaTek) essentially confirmed: this chip was made for mass-market consumers, not for storing critically important data. Financial operations require specialized protection.
The key takeaway from the researchers:
A modern smartphone is a convenient "wallet" for daily spending, but not a "safe" for long-term holdings.
Keeping significant amounts in hot wallets on your phone after this study is a huge risk.
Question for you: How do you distribute your assets between hot and hardware wallets after news like this? Do you trust your smartphone to store significant sums?
#Android #Web3 #crypto

Do you think you just got a 'bargain' by buying a cheap smartphone? You could very well be becoming the target of one of the most dangerous types of malware today – and your crypto may no longer be safe.

Fake phone, real money lost

According to the latest report from cybersecurity company #Kaspersky , more than 2,600 Android users have fallen victim to the Triada Trojan malware, which was pre-installed on cheap counterfeit phones before reaching users.