{"677482":{"#nid":"677482","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Georgia Tech\u2019s New Tool Can Detect Malware on Android Phones  ","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EScreen readers, voice-to-text, and other accessibility features have enabled people with disabilities to use smartphones. Yet these same features make the phones more accessible to hackers, too.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMalware uses these accessibility tools to read screens and click on things it shouldn\u2019t \u2014 with disastrous consequences, like transferring large sums of money from a banking app or even preventing the malware from being uninstalled. All it takes is a user clicking on a phishing link or downloading the wrong app on the Google Play Store to install malware on a phone. Then everything from cryptocurrency apps to rideshare apps that have credit cards stored in a virtual wallet become vulnerable.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EResearchers at Georgia Tech have developed a new tool, Detector of Victim-specific Accessibility (DVa), that can check for malware. DVa runs on the cloud to check the phone for this malware, then sends the user a report of its findings that shows which apps are malware and how to delete them. It will also tell them which victim apps the malware was targeting and how to contact those companies to check for damages. DVa also sends a report to Google, so the company can attempt to eradicate this malware from apps.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cAs we continue to design systems that are more and more accessible, we also need security experts in the room,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/saltaformaggio.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EBrendan Saltaformaggio\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the School of\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/scp.cc.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003E Cybersecurity and Privacy\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;(SCP) and the School of\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.ece.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EElectrical and Computer Engineering\u003C\/a\u003E. \u201cBecause if we don\u0027t, they\u0027re going to get abused by hackers.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EModeling Malware\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo determine how vulnerable smartphones are to this type of hack, the team set up five Google Pixel phones and performed a malware analysis. The Georgia Tech researchers teamed up with Netskope \u2014 an industry leader in cloud, data, and network security \u2014 to help protect smartphones everywhere from this type of powerful malware. Then they installed some of the sample malware on each phone to see how it debilitated the system and used DVa to report this behavior.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhile DVa can detect current attacks, the researchers note the challenge is ensuring that removing malware doesn\u2019t remove accessibility.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIn the future, we need to look at how accessibility services work overall to figure out what\u0027s fundamentally different from a benign use and a malicious use,\u201d said \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/haichuanxuken.github.io\/\u0022\u003EHaichuan (Ken) Xu\u003C\/a\u003E, a Ph.D. student in SCP.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EHackers are using accessibility features to hijack phones, but Georgia Tech researchers know how to stop it.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Hackers are using accessibility features to hijack phones, but Georgia Tech researchers know how to stop it."}],"uid":"34541","created_gmt":"2024-10-11 17:07:31","changed_gmt":"2024-10-15 19:25:37","author":"Tess Malone","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2024-10-11T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2024-10-11T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"675295":{"id":"675295","type":"image","title":"PXL_20240815_142658886.MP_.jpg","body":null,"created":"1728666889","gmt_created":"2024-10-11 17:14:49","changed":"1728666889","gmt_changed":"2024-10-11 17:14:49","alt":"Researchers at the conference. ","file":{"fid":"258902","name":"PXL_20240815_142658886.MP_.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/11\/PXL_20240815_142658886.MP_.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2024\/10\/11\/PXL_20240815_142658886.MP_.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":515528,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2024\/10\/11\/PXL_20240815_142658886.MP_.jpg?itok=YIa60ktJ"}}},"media_ids":["675295"],"groups":[{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"},{"id":"1188","name":"Research Horizons"}],"categories":[],"keywords":[{"id":"187915","name":"go-researchnews"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ETess Malone, Senior Research Writer\/Editor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Etess.malone@gatech.edu\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}