ForbiddenKnowledgeTV
Alexandra Bruce
October 15, 2014
Sometimes, the mainstream news makes good use of its airtime. This is such an instance.
FOXNEWS’ Bret Baier kicks off his network’s “Cybersecurity Month,” in his talk with cybersecurity Expert, Gary Miliefsky, where we learn that one of the world’s most popular, free SmartPhone apps, “Brightest Flashlight,” which activates the LED on your phone’s built-in camera to work as a flashlight – is actually powerful malware.
It’s so popular that it’s been downloaded by half a billion people so far – and once installed, it’s in the background, spying on everything that you do, such as your mobile banking – even when you’re not running the app – making your data accessible to cybercriminals.
“Brightest Flashlight” recently settled a two-year case with the FTC, in which they had to disclose all of this, in their 25-page Terms of Service Agreement that everybody ignores. The most messed-up part of this story is that it’s kinda of old and that it’s been relegated to the tech media till now.
Miliefsky suggests that any Flashlight app in the range of 2-5 megabytes is probably Trojan Horse-laden malware and that you should look for a flashlight app that uses a lot less code and with terms of service that you would actually agree to.
Unfortunately, for the many who have already downloaded this malware onto their phones, such as myself, he advises us to take our phones to our service providers’ stores and remove all apps from our phones and to have them returned to their factory presets before downloading the apps we like to use – more carefully, this time.
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