Year: 2022

Several adware apps promoted aggressively on Facebook as system cleaners and optimizers for Android devices are counting millions of installations on Google Play store.

The apps lack all of the promised functionality and push advertisements while trying to last as long as possible on the device.

To evade deletion, the apps hide on the victim’s device by constantly changing icons and names, masquerading as Settings or the Play Store itself.

The adware apps abuse the Contact Provider Android component, which enables them to transfer data between the device and online services.

The subsystem is called every time a new app is installed, so the adware might be using it to initiate the ad-serving process. To the user it may look like the ads are pushed by the legitimate app they installed.

Researchers at McAfee discovered the adware apps. They note that users don’t

Robberies at Evansville computer store investigated

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WEHT) In Evansville, police are investigating a recent robbery at a computer store during the 4th of July weekend.

They’re looking for two suspects who robbed the Computers Plus store just off of North Burkhardt.

Managers at Computers Plus in Evansville say they had several thousand dollars worth of items stolen from their store over the 4th of July weekend, just several weeks after they were robbed a previous time.

“Pretty much anything they could get their hands on in about 45 seconds,” said GM Justin Parrish.

Surveillance video from the store shows two people breaking in through the front door, using a heavy object then grabbing $15,000 to $20,000 worth of stuff off the displays inside.

“It took away, pretty much, all of our demo computers off of two whole counters,” said

A former owner of a T-Mobile retail store in California has been found guilty of a $25 million scheme where he illegally accessed T-Mobile’s internal systems to unlock and unblock cell phones.

Argishti Khudaverdyan, 44, allegedly ran a scheme between 2014 and 2019 where he unlocked devices from the cellular networks of their vendors and enabled people to use them with other telecommunication providers.

This scheme impacted mobile carriers who offer these devices to customers at a special price or even free of charge, offsetting the cost by locking them for some time in their networks.

Additionally, Khudaverdyan unlocked devices the carriers had blocked due to their rightful owners reporting them as stolen or lost.

This action of unlocking stolen cellphones is particularly detrimental because it allows these phones to be sold on a black market, making the theft and reselling of devices very profitable.

“From August 2014 to June

LOS ANGELES – A former owner of a T-Mobile retail store in Eagle Rock has been found guilty by a jury of 14 federal criminal charges for his $25 million scheme to enrich himself by stealing T-Mobile employee credentials and illegally accessing the company’s internal computer systems to illicitly “unlock” and “unblock” cellphones, the Justice Department announced today.

Argishti Khudaverdyan, 44, of Burbank, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, three counts of wire fraud, two counts of accessing a computer to defraud and obtain value, one count of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain information, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, five counts of money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft.

The jury returned the guilty verdict Friday evening in United States District Court.

According to evidence presented at his four-day trial, Khudaverdyan ran a multi-year scheme that