A new variant of the TrickMo malware has been identified, posing a greater threat to Android users. The malware, designed to steal device unlock codes like PINs and patterns, has raised alarm among cybersecurity experts. This revelation, first disclosed on September 10 by Cleafy and further analyzed by Zimperium, highlights the evolving capabilities of TrickMo, making it a serious concern for Android users worldwide.

TrickMo malware’s new Focus on Android PINs

TrickMo, originally known as a banking Trojan, has evolved to target Android users more aggressively. This new variant employs advanced techniques to capture users’ unlock patterns and PINs. The malware tricks users into entering their credentials by displaying a deceptive user interface that mimics the device’s legitimate unlock screen. These details are then sent to the attacker’s server, linking the stolen information directly to the victim’s device.

Zimperium’s analysis found that the malware hosts this fake UI as an external HTML page. When users enter their unlock details, the malware immediately sends this data, along with a unique identifier, to the attacker. This feature lets attackers control the device even when it is locked.

Zimperium researchers identified over 40 variants of the TrickMo malware during their investigation. These variants have similar functionalities, such as OTP interception, screen recording, data exfiltration, and remote control. However, the addition of unlock code theft takes the threat to a new level. This capability enables attackers to access sensitive information, potentially leading to significant financial losses for users.

The malware mainly targets Android devices in Canada, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, and Germany. Zimperium’s research shows that the malware has compromised thousands of devices in these regions. It has stolen millions of records. Data theft goes beyond financial information. It also includes credentials for accessing corporate resources. This increases the risk for both individuals and organizations.

Steps to mitigate the TrickMo malware threat

To protect against TrickMo malware and its ability to steal Android PINs, users must take a few actions. First, regularly update your device’s operating system and apps. These updates often patch security vulnerabilities that could be exploited by malware like TrickMo.

It’s also essential to avoid downloading apps from untrusted sources. Unverified apps can carry hidden malware, putting your device and personal information at risk. Similarly, be cautious about clicking suspicious links that might lead to harmful downloads.

Lastly, using advanced security solutions that offer real-time threat detection and response is crucial. These tools can detect and block malware like TrickMo before it compromises your device.

Meet Apple’s seventh-generation iPad mini. Arriving over three years after its predecessor, the new tablet adds a faster A17 Pro chip originally found in the iPhone 15 Pro series with support for Apple Intelligence, more entry-level storage and support for the Apple Pencil Pro.

The iPad mini 7 has the same 8.3-inch screen size as the previous model and an identical 2266 x 1488 resolution at 326 ppi. Unfortunately, the refresh rate remains a modest 60Hz; from what we can tell, the display is identical to the one in its predecessor. It’s dimensions remain unchanged as well. The front-facing camera is still in the portrait position, something that makes sense for a device of this size, and both the front- and back-facing cameras appear unchanged from the previous iPad mini.

Without any significant design upgrades, this update is more about what’s inside. The A17 Pro chip lets the new tablet use Apple Intelligence features like smarter Siri, Writing Tools, Image Playground and Genmoji. It also has more RAM and 128GB of storage in the base-level model, double that of the 2021 model. There’s also a 512GB storage option for the first time.

The new iPad mini arrives on October 23 and starts at $499 for 128GB storage.

Update, October 15 2024, 9:40AM ET: This post originally said that the new iPad mini used the A18 chip; it has been updated to note that it uses the A17 Pro chip. We apologize for the error.

Strella, a startup using artificial intelligence to automate and accelerate customer research, announced today that it has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Decibel, with participation from Unusual Ventures. The company’s AI-powered platform aims to deliver human insights up to 10 times faster and at half the cost of traditional research methods.

Founded by Lydia Hylton and Priya Krishnan, Strella is tackling a long-standing challenge in market research: the trade-off between speed and depth of customer insights. The company’s AI moderator can conduct interviews, analyze responses, and synthesize findings in real-time, dramatically condensing timelines for gathering qualitative feedback.

AI interviews: The future of scalable qualitative research

“Traditionally, if you wanted any scale in a customer research project, you had to run surveys. It’s way too painful to do human-led interviews if you want to have 30, 40, 50 interviews on a topic,” said Lydia Hylton, Co-Founder and CEO of Strella, in an interview with VentureBeat. “We’re now able to get the richness of qualitative feedback that you get from a conversation, but at the scale of a survey and at the speed of a survey.”

The platform is designed to work alongside human researchers, allowing companies to blend AI-moderated and human-led interviews within the same system. This flexibility addresses concerns about losing the human touch in customer interactions.

“We’ve designed our platform to be conducive to human-centered research as well,” explained Priya Krishnan, Co-Founder of Strella. “Let’s say you want to run a research project and you want to interview 10 of your customers, we give you the flexibility to choose to use the AI moderator as much or as little as you want.”

Enhancing customer feedback: Strella’s approach

Strella’s method could significantly alter how companies gather customer feedback and inform product decisions. By lowering the time and cost barriers to qualitative research, the platform may enable more frequent and comprehensive customer engagement across various industries.

The company reports it has already signed on 15 customers, including notable names like Duolingo and Spanx. This early traction in both the tech and consumer goods sectors suggests broad applicability for Strella’s technology.

Jessica Leao, partner at Decibel, highlighted the potential impact of Strella’s technology: “You get to transform this entire world of quantitative research into qualitative research, because you’re no longer blocked on time. You’re no longer blocked on scheduling.”

However, Strella enters a competitive field. Established players like Qualtrics dominate in quantitative research, while numerous startups are leveraging AI for various aspects of market research. Strella’s differentiation lies in its end-to-end automation of the qualitative research process, from interview moderation to insight synthesis.

The AI-driven future of market research: Opportunities and challenges

The funding round comes at a time of growing interest in AI applications for business intelligence. As companies seek to become more data-driven and customer-centric, tools that can rapidly deliver actionable insights are increasingly valuable.

Looking ahead, Strella aims to expand its reach across industries and company sizes. “We really want customer research to be accessible for teams of all sizes, across industries,” Krishnan said. “Up until now, research has really only been something that medium to larger companies have had the resources to do.”

As Strella emerges from stealth mode with this funding announcement, it faces a twofold challenge: proving its AI can consistently deliver high-quality insights across diverse research scenarios, and convincing businesses to shift away from established research methodologies. The company’s success hinges not just on technological prowess, but on its ability to change deeply ingrained corporate habits around customer feedback.

If Strella can overcome these hurdles, it may usher in a new era where AI-driven qualitative research becomes as commonplace as surveys are today. In a business world increasingly driven by data, Strella’s approach could be the difference between companies that truly understand their customers and those that are left guessing.

Amplitude, a publicly-traded company that makes digital analytics software, has acquired Command AI, an app user engagement startup formerly known as CommandBar.

Most of Command AI’s 30-person, San Francisco-based team will be joining Amplitude. Command AI’s co-founder and CEO James Evans wouldn’t reveal the terms of the deal, but said candidly that an acquisition wasn’t something he’d been planning on.

“Our growth was great and we had plenty of runway,” Evans told TechCrunch. “We weren’t out shopping ourselves or anything. But when Amplitude reached out a little while ago — this summer — we got really excited about the combination and became convinced that we could grow faster and reach more users together.”

Evans started Command AI in 2021 as a way for developers to easily integrate search functionality into their web apps. Together with co-founders Richard Freling and Vinay Ayyala, he built Command AI’s first product: an in-app search bar that provided personalized results, shortcuts, and the ability to highlight new app enhancements.

Over the years, Command AI’s product portfolio expanded to include a chatbot and AI Co-Browsing, which walks a user through in-app features by effectively taking control of their mouse. A more recent tool in development, Nudge Autopilot, shows “nudges” (e.g., reminders to try out certain app features) to users automatically based on metrics.

Twenty-five million end-users interact with Command AI’s products on a regular basis through apps built by clients like Hashicorp, Gusto, Yotpo and LaunchDarkly, Evans said. Before the Amplitude buyout, Command AI managed to raise $23.8 million from backers including Insight Partners, Itai Tsiddon and Thrive Capital.

So how does Command AI’s technology fit into Amplitude’s product roadmap? Amplitude CEO and co-founder Spenser Skates says the startup will enable Amplitude to offer “personalized user assistance” via in-product tours, onboarding experiences, and more.

Specifically, early next year, Command AI will launch checklists and guides for Amplitude, which will let customers create app and website action plans as well as interactive product tours. Announcements, another Command AI-powered capability heading to Amplitude, will allow customers to set up “smart triggers” in apps for things like updates and special offers.

Evans sees the integrations as a natural evolution for Command AI, which has offered connectors to Amplitude for some time.

“There’s a really tight loop between tools that help you understand user behavior — Amplitude — and tools that help you influence user behavior — us,” he said. “Imagine you identify a user segment that seems to not be digging your product. Well, naturally, you then might want to ask those users a question with a survey, or try to steer them to some feature they might care about, and then aggregate that feedback or see the impact of that change. We’ve always solved that connection with integration, but being on the same team is going to allow us to build a much tighter feedback loop.”

Evans will become director of product at Amplitude once the deal closes, while Ayyala will become engineering director. They’ll both oversee Amplitude’s new Command AI product org, which will continue to serve current Command AI customers through the end of the year.

Command AI is Amplitude’s third acquisition since its founding a decade ago. In 2020, Amplitude bought ClearBrain, a predictive analytics company, and in 2021, it purchased data pipeline firm Iteratively.

Amplitude claims to have more than 2,700 paying customers, including 26 of the Fortune 100.

Security researchers have devised a new tool to help Android users spot and remove malware from their devices.

It is called Detector of Victim-specific Accessibility (DVa), and it was built by cybersecurity experts at Georgia Tech. It runs on the cloud, checks the phone for malware that abuses accessibility permissions, and then reports back to the user.