A mobile giant has unveiled its latest cybersecurity moves as experts sound alarm bells over a rise in malware attacks.
The CrowdStrike outage shows “how easy” it is to disrupt Australia’s technology systems, says Suelette Dreyfus, a computer science and information technology lecturer at the University of Melbourne. “It gave a really good indication – and this wasn’t even an attack – of how easy it is to disrupt our systems if we’re not careful,” she told Sky News Australia. On Friday, operations at some of Australia’s largest companies were thrown into chaos for hours by a CrowdStrike update that instead led to an IT outage.
The South Korean tech company announced earlier this month that it would ship its new phones with the “AutoBlocker” feature automatically enabled.
This comes as Google has announced that it will crack down on low-quality apps that “provide no real value” or are unstable from August 31.
Samsung said that AutoBlocker, when enabled, provides “enhanced security” to its users, including “blocking malicious activities.”
“Only apps from approved sources, such as the Galaxy Store or Play Store, can be installed,” the tech and home appliance giant said.
“If you try to install apps from unknown or unauthorized sources, you will receive a pop-up alert, and Auto Blocker will prevent you from continuing.”
If the app is ultimately found to be safe, Samsung said users will be able to temporarily disable AutoBlocker and try using it again.
Samsung’s AutoBlocker feature will be activated automatically. Image: Samsung
The feature will also block USB commands from “malicious chargers and computers” and block images that may contain malware from Messages.
These changes come amid renewed focus on global cybersecurity in the wake of multiple high-profile attacks, including unauthorized malicious applications.
In June, Agence France-Presse warned of a shocking rise in cybercriminals using remote access trojans, or RATs, to secretly reconnoiter or steal data from their victims.
Once the malware is downloaded, it is automatically installed on the user’s device, allowing criminals to access their webcams, microphones, passwords, location data, and private files.
In addition to blocking apps, AutoBlocker will also allow users to enable so-called “maximum” restrictions for their personal devices.
This feature allows users to check installed applications for malware, block automatically downloaded attachments, block hyperlinks, previews, and shared albums.
Also important is that this app allows users to block location data when sharing photos in Samsung Message or if they are shared from Samsung’s own Photos app.
The AutoBlocker feature can be turned on and off in the phone settings and is set to turn on automatically for Samsung’s One UI 6 users.
