According to a Check Point Research reportMany popular Android apps put your personal data at risk due to poorly secured third-party services.

The report highlights various security vulnerabilities affecting 23 different apps available on Google Play, each with 50,000 to 10 million downloads. Most of the affected apps collect and store user information, developer data, and internal company resources using unsecured real-time databases and cloud storage services. The security researchers were able to find the unsecured cloud databases from 13 apps, so that external actors can also access them.

Other apps have misconfigured push notification managers that allow hackers to intercept and modify seemingly legitimate notifications from developers to include malware, phishing links, or misleading content.

These vulnerabilities put at least 100 million Android users at risk with fraud, identity theft, and malware attacks.

Which Android apps are putting your data at risk?

Check Point Research said it found one or more of these bugs in 23 apps, 13 of which had real-time open databases. However, the report only calls five of these apps by name:

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• Astro Guru: A horoscope app with over 10 million downloads. It stores every user’s full name, date of birth, gender, GPS location, email address, and payment information.
• iFax: A mobile fax app that stores all documents sent by more than 500,000 users in an accessible cloud database – with the cloud storage keys embedded in the app.
• Logo Maker: A graphic design app with over 170,000 users. Check Point has determined that all full names, account IDs, emails, and passwords of all users are accessible.
• Screen recorder: This app has more than 10 million downloads. The report found that account passwords are stored in the same cloud service that stores the recordings made by the app, making them vulnerable.
• T’Leva: This taxi app from Angola with more than 50,000 downloads makes the text history between drivers and drivers, location data, full names and phone numbers accessible.

Check Point notified the app creators, but only Astro Guru responded and all apps are still available on Google Play.

What should Android users do to keep their data safe?

The first step is to stop using the apps mentioned in Check Point Research’s report. However, since only five are named, it means that at least 18 others are storing your data without the proper security precautions.

And that’s exactly what we know from the Check Point report – there are likely far more apps, websites, and services with misconfigured databases that we won’t find out about until after a leak.

While the Check Point Research report and similar reports may alert developers to unsafe data storage practices, it is ultimately up to the developers to correct the problem. However, no matter which apps they are using, users can take preventative measures to protect their personal information and other important data:

1. To use Two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible.
2. Withhold personal information from your accounts (for example, don’t add your home address if a service doesn’t need it) or use fake information whenever possible.
3. Create unique passwords for each account and Use an encrypted password manager.
4. Don’t link third party accounts like Google, Facebook, and Twitter if you can avoid it.
5. To keep App permissions to the bare minimum.
6. To use Services that notify you of breaches and compromised accounts.

These extra steps won’t stop a breach, but they can reduce your risk of identity theft, fraud, and other scams. We also have guides on prevention and Responding to data breaches, Ransomware Attacks, Malware, and Identity theftand how to recognize common Phishing Tactics and Other Scams Online.

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Screenshot: Ted Lasso / Apple TV +

You would be forgiven if you had spent the past 15 months (or more) in a constant state of anxiety. Surely in 2021 it’s easy to forget that there is just as much to celebrate in life as there is to complain. Probably more! May be. However, as you remember this – and strive to be a positive force in the world yourself – you may need to reconfigure the lenses through which you look at those around you.

As always, Mr. Rogers’ legacy is here to help. In Pennsylvania, Today is 143 days– the 143rd day of the year; 143 was Mr. Roger’s favorite number, lifelong adult weight, and special code to tell others, “I love you.” The day is designed to celebrate the most important and simplest challenges facing the beloved children’s television presenter: “Imagine what our real neighborhoods are like if each of us naturally offered just one kind word to another person. ”If we are all a little kinder to one another, the world will really be a better place – it actually is Science to support that.

That’s all well and good, but how can you get inspiration to say hello like Mr. Rogers every day? Maybe you just need to lead by example. What follows are 21 movies and TV series that show you the importance of moving through life with kindness and compassion for others in everything you do. Granted, it’s a hell of a high bar, but I think you can make it and die trying. (And because we all need the help we can get, share your own tips in the comments – please without the usual list indignation; remember, kindness is important.)

Internet cultureInternet cultureIt’s hard to keep up with internet culture, but don’t worry: every week we tell you the best of what you need to know.

Last week’s 0ut-of-Touch guide touched the stark darkness on the internet so we’re keeping it light this week like a flyweight boxer trying to hit his weight class. Nothing is more serious than eating pasta, pestering squirrels, zombies taking over Las Vegas, and the oldest “teenager” since Dick Clark went to the bandstand in the sky.

This week on the wrong vacation: May 24th is Rigatoni Pasta Day

According to my Ace youth reporter (my niece Claire), April 24th is Eat Rigatoni Pasta Day, an annual celebration where everyone is encouraged to consume rigatoni pasta. The meme thing comes from the TikTok account of @ jimmyrules32who has been reporting on the day without interruption since January 2020. His TikTok is pure dedication.

“Who cares?” I hear you ask Well, children take care. She cares enough # eatabowlofrigatonipastaonmay242021 has over 41 million views from TikTok. So if you want to be a cool uncle / aunt / mom / dad / sensei serve a steaming plate of rigatoni on May 24th, and if you want to be really cool, top your rigatoni with it Marcella Hazan’s Bolognese sauce. Trust me.

This week with old-fashioned teenagers: Dear Evan Hansen

Have you seen the trailer for the upcoming teen movie? Dear Evan Hansen? It’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in years, and not just because I think teenage suicide musicals are funny. The film looks like a full-length version of Steve Buscemi “How are you, fellow children?Meme: Actor Ben Platt plays a 17 year old high school student, but the guy looks at least 35. And not “young 35” either. More like “just divorced and starting a recovery program”. He is clearly older than his own mother.

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Flat, salty, responded to the exhilaration of the internet with a (now deleted) tweet reading, “If the Randos are idiots about the ages, read this great article and / or watch fat. “

I’m obviously not going to read this shit, but Platt is right about Grease. Old people playing high school kids are nothing new, but that doesn’t make it any less ridiculous. In honor of Ben Platt, check out my three favorite shots of the joke: No other teen movieMr. Show is a woman as a teenager until well into the 1970s.No Adults Allowed ”sketchand the entire run of Strangers with sweets.

In Music This Week: Demi Lovato introduces her new pronouns

In a video posted on Twitter, pop star Demi Lovato made cultural waves by appearing as the non-binary gender. “I had the revelation that I identify as non-binary,” they said in the video, “I’m going to officially change my pronouns to” she / she “.”

According to Lovato, the new pronouns best represent the fluidity they feel in their gender expression. “I do this for those out there who haven’t been able to share who they really are with loved ones. Please continue to live in your truths and know that I send you so much love, “Lovato tweeted.

If you’re old and out of touch like me, you’re probably like, “Huh? Whazzis now? “About people changing their pronouns, but after thinking about it for 43 seconds, I’ve come to the conclusion that everyone should just call people what they want to be called and, in general, go about their own business.

Streaming this week: Army of the Dead

It’s been too long since a good zombie movie has come out and too long since a good heist movie has come out. Fortunately, the drought ends for this Friday with the release of Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead.

This mash-up from the genre Zombies-Kill-Everybody and the genre Thieves-Steal-Everything is set in a post-apocalypse in Las Vegas and contains a zombie tiger, zombie show girls, zombie Elvis impersonators and a group of malicious mercenaries in the Quarantine zone to steal hundreds of millions of dollars. So it’s pretty much the best summer opening movie ever, and I don’t even have to see it to tell you this.

To judge by the trailerSnyder, whose previous credits include Justice League, 300, Man of Steel and this great reboot of Dawn of the Dead, is the right person to balance the humor, horror and action that an epic like this demands .

Viral Video of the Week: Backyard Squirrel Maze 2.0 – The Walnut Heist

YouTuber Mark Rober has a squirrel problem. The little rodents won’t stop invading the bird feeders in his back yard to steal the cute, sweet birdseed inside. Instead of poisoning them or moving, Rober built an elaborate obstacle course that looked at robbery movies and forced the squirrels to find out. I’m talking about a full maze of air ducts, randomly moving rocky outcrops, a little helicopter flight and much more. When the little boys get to the end, the reward is sweet: more walnuts than they could eat in their life!

This video stands out for both the elaborate and meticulous design of the obstacles and the amiability of the squirrels – in the end you are really invested in them to find out.