As an Android developer that comment makes me sad. Then I remind myself that Lemmy is full of people who migrated from Reddit.
Dude, do you not want people on this platform? Reddit migrants come with baggage yes but I’d rather that than the husk that was Lemmy before.
For a real answer here’s the Zscaler blog write up: https://www.zscaler.com/blogs/security-research/technical-analysis-anatsa-campaigns-android-banking-malware-active-google
It looks like they are doing it after app install with a malicious patch. This patch asks for SMS and accessibility access to gain privileges necessary to get into the banking apps. I haven’t thoroughly read it but just looking at the attack chain that’s what I gleaned.
Android as a system has too many moving parts. You not only have to worry about various device manufacturers compiling their own versions of AOSP, you have to worry about how manufacturers package unremovable apps like facebook, candy crush, etc.
The backdoor is actually the front door… and it is app vendors who are actually the customers… not the phone owners.
The main reason smartphones took off is that business people were salivating at an always on, always listening device with 10+ sensors collecting data on this whole world. And we pay for the privilege.
Android has to be designed to collect data and show you ads. Is it really surprising that security here is just security against free access to this data from outsiders… and not caring about your security?
Why? They’re absolutely right. The article doesn’t say anything about a root exploit or phishing either so were left wondering…
He’s being condescending because he believes as a developer nothing is actually fully secure. If I spend 100 hours building and securing something, that’s not going to stack up very favorably vs the 1,000’s or even 1,000,000’s of hours attackers and communities can spend trying to break my security layers.
Basically, he’s a dick in how he answered the question, but the truth every software engineer learns, is that there is no fully secure system. There’s always an angle/attack vector you didn’t think of and secure.
Of course there are (or there can be) fully secure systems. The problems come when you assume something is.
