Android users are surrounded with several
apps to download from both google
playstore and other sources. There are
millions of applications for almost every
category of human beings. There are apps
with different tasks and functions and one of
the popular apps are keyboard apps as we
need them for typing.
Flash Keyboard is among the most popular
applications in Google playstore as it has
recorded over 50 million downloads and was
sometime ranked as the 11th most popular
app on playstore but unknowingly to users,
the app is full of malware and not safe for
users. This was recently discovered by a UK-
based cyber-security firm by name Pentest .
They found the keyboard to be asking for
“excessive permissions”, displaying infected
ads, asking for admin privileges in order to
make uninstall very difficult, monitoring user
behavior, and then sending data to servers
in China without the user’s consent.
Reasons Why Flash Keyboard App Is A
Malware
According to Pentest
1. The app requires unwanted access to a
phone’s Bluetooth connection, geo-location
feature, or Wi-Fi status which is not ideal for
a keyboard app.
2. The app always ask for access to kill
background processes, read SMS messages,
show system overlays, or remove download
notifications. Pentest says there are no
reasons for a keyboard app to require these
intrusive permissions.
3. Flash Keyboard was asking for device
admin permissions, and was using these
powers to take over the smartphone’s lock
screen and show ads even if users opted
out.
4. Flash Keyboard secretly transfers data to
secret servers located in China and other
foreign countries. The app transmitted
sensitive user data including the owner’s
email address, device manufacturer, model
number, IMEI and Android version to what it
believes to be analytics servers in the US,
Netherlands and China.
5. Flash Keyboard sends details of the
currently connected Wi-Fi network and
others in the proximity, the identity of the
mobile network being used and GPS
coordinates that are accurate to within three
meters of the user.
So you have seen it. If you noticed, the
owners of the app are always running ads on
Facebook and Google adword to promote it
but seeing what is on ground now, i think
you should think twice before downloading
the app. Of course there are other nice and
amazing android keyboard you should try.
For instance SwiftKey, Google keyboard and
Gokeyboard are all nice.
Please hit the SHARE BUTTONs to share this
with your friends so that they will be aware
of this malware pending the time the app
developers fixes it. Thank you.
apps to download from both google
playstore and other sources. There are
millions of applications for almost every
category of human beings. There are apps
with different tasks and functions and one of
the popular apps are keyboard apps as we
need them for typing.
Flash Keyboard is among the most popular
applications in Google playstore as it has
recorded over 50 million downloads and was
sometime ranked as the 11th most popular
app on playstore but unknowingly to users,
the app is full of malware and not safe for
users. This was recently discovered by a UK-
based cyber-security firm by name Pentest .
They found the keyboard to be asking for
“excessive permissions”, displaying infected
ads, asking for admin privileges in order to
make uninstall very difficult, monitoring user
behavior, and then sending data to servers
in China without the user’s consent.
Reasons Why Flash Keyboard App Is A
Malware
According to Pentest
1. The app requires unwanted access to a
phone’s Bluetooth connection, geo-location
feature, or Wi-Fi status which is not ideal for
a keyboard app.
2. The app always ask for access to kill
background processes, read SMS messages,
show system overlays, or remove download
notifications. Pentest says there are no
reasons for a keyboard app to require these
intrusive permissions.
3. Flash Keyboard was asking for device
admin permissions, and was using these
powers to take over the smartphone’s lock
screen and show ads even if users opted
out.
4. Flash Keyboard secretly transfers data to
secret servers located in China and other
foreign countries. The app transmitted
sensitive user data including the owner’s
email address, device manufacturer, model
number, IMEI and Android version to what it
believes to be analytics servers in the US,
Netherlands and China.
5. Flash Keyboard sends details of the
currently connected Wi-Fi network and
others in the proximity, the identity of the
mobile network being used and GPS
coordinates that are accurate to within three
meters of the user.
So you have seen it. If you noticed, the
owners of the app are always running ads on
Facebook and Google adword to promote it
but seeing what is on ground now, i think
you should think twice before downloading
the app. Of course there are other nice and
amazing android keyboard you should try.
For instance SwiftKey, Google keyboard and
Gokeyboard are all nice.
Please hit the SHARE BUTTONs to share this
with your friends so that they will be aware
of this malware pending the time the app
developers fixes it. Thank you.
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