Has your smartphone suddenly slowed down, warmed up and the battery drained down for no apparent reason? If so, it may have been hijacked to mine cryptocurrencies.

This new type of cyberattack is called "cryptojacking" by security experts.

It "consists of entrapping an internet server, a personal computer or a smartphone to install malware to mine cryptocurrencies," said Gerome Billois, an expert at the IT service management company Wavestone.

Mining is basically the process of helping verify and process transactions in a given virtual currency. In exchange miners are now and then rewarded with some of the currency themselves.

Legitimate mining operations link thousands of processors together to increase the computing power available to earn cryptocurrencies.

Mining bitcoin, ethereum, monero and other cryptocurrencies may be very profitable, but it does require considerable investments and generates huge electricity bills.

But hackers have found a cheaper option: surreptitiously exploiting the processors in smartphones.

To lure victims, hackers turn to the digital world's equivalent of the Trojan horse subterfuge of Greek mythology: inside an innocuous-looking app or program hides a malicious one.

The popularity of games makes them attractive for hackers.

"Recently, we have discovered that a version of the popular game Bug Smasher, installed from Google Play between one and five million times, has been secretly mining the cryptocurrency monero on users' devices," said researchers at IT security firm ESET.

The phenomenon is apparently growing.

"More and more mobile applications hiding Trojan horses associated to a cryptocurrency mining program have appeared on the platforms in the last 12 months," said David Emm, a security researcher at Kaspersky Lab, a leading supplier of computer security and anti-virus software.

"On mobiles the processing power available to criminals is less," but "there is a lot more of these devices, and therefore taking in total, they offer a greater potential," he added.

Google cleans house
But for smartphone owners, the mining is at best a nuisance, slowing down the operation of the phone and making it warm to the touch as the processor struggles to unlock cryptocurrency and accomplish other tasks.

At worst, it can damage the phone.

"On Android devices, the computational load can even lead to 'bloating' of the battery and thus to physical damage to, or destruction of, the device," said ESET.

However, "users are generally unaware" they have been cryptojacked, said Emm.

Cryptojacking affects mostly smartphones running Google's Android operating system.

Apple exercises more control over apps that can be installed on its phones, so hackers have targeted iPhones less.

But Google recently cleaned up its app store, Google Play, telling developers that it will no longer accept apps that mine cryptocurrencies on its platform.

'Cat and mouse game'
"It is difficult to know which applications to block," said Pascal Le Digol, the country manager in France for US IT security firm WatchGuard, given that "there are new ones every day."

Moreover, as the miners try to "be as discreet as possible" the apps do not stand out immediately, he added.

There are steps to take to protect one's phone.

Besides installing an antivirus program, it is important "to update your Android phone" to the latest version of the operating system available to it, said online fraud expert Laurent Petroque at F5 Networks.

He also noted that "people who decide to download apps from non-official sources are at more risk of inadvertently downloading a malicious app."

Defending against cyberattacks of all kinds is "a game of cat and mouse," said Le Digol at WatchGuard.

"You need to constantly adapt to the evolution of threats."

In this case, "the mouse made a large leap," said Le Digol, adding cryptojacking could evolve to other forms in the future to include all types of connected objects.

Serena Williams said Saturday she doesn’t have a problem with the French Open’s new dress code, which would bar her from wearing the skin-tight “catsuit” she donned for her opening match at the event earlier this year.

Williams, who says the catsuit helped her deal with blood clots, said she’s found that compression shorts help keep her blood circulating just as well.

“When it comes to fashion, you don’t want to be a repeat offender,” she joked on Saturday, per the Associated Press.

Williams wore the catsuit for her opening match at Roland Garros this year, saying it made her feel like a super hero and dedicating it to new mothers.

“All the moms out there that had a tough pregnancy ... have to come back and try to be fierce, in (the) middle of everything,” said Williams, who was returning from a long layoff after the birth of her first child.

Shoe giant Nike stuck up for Williams in a Friday night tweet.

“You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers,” it read.

French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli mentioned the outfit in addressing the new policy.

“It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place,” said Giudicelli.

The new rules weren’t released, but Giudicelli says they won’t be as restrictive as Wimbledon’s all-white policy.

An 18-year-old student from Georgia solved six Rubik’s Cubes under water in one breath on Friday, in a bid to set a new Guinness World Record.

Vako Marchelashvili was submerged in a glass tank for just over one minute and 44 seconds as he flipped, turned and solved the cubes in front of a crowd at the Gino Paradise aqua park Tbilisi.

He said he had been preparing for the underwater challenge for six months, training several hours a day.

“I trained a lot planning to break a record - and to ensure my safety, because even a small mistake could be dangerous and life-altering,” Marchelashvili said afterwards.

“I think my result will stay as a record for a long time. I hope to break many other records.”

After observing Marchelashvili’s attempt, the Georgian Records Federation issued a diploma confirming his result. They will send their evidence to the Guinness World Records headquarters for verification.

The current underwater record of five cubes was set by Anthony Brooks in New Jersey in the United States in August 2014, according to the Guinness World Record website.

The Labour Party (LP) has launched President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election sensitisation with the pledge to deliver 16 million votes in the 2019 presidential elections.

The National Chairman of the Party, Dr Mike Omotosho, gave the assurance on Thursday in Ilorin at a public lecture and inauguration of Wards and Local Governments canvassers for re-election bid of Buhari and his Vice, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

The event organised by the Buhari/Osinbajo 2019 Project was attended by the Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the Minister of Information and Culture and the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kwara.

Omotosho, in a goodwill message at the event, said the labour party will support the re-election bid of Buhari and will mobilise vote for him.

He said his party will also work with the APC to liberate Kwara from misrule by a clique led by one man.

Omotosho charged the people of Kwara, to take the opportunity of the political development in the country to free themselves from slavery and oppression.

Speaking in the same vein, the Chairman of APC caretaker committee in Kwara. Bashir Bolarinwa said President Buhari should be given a chance to continue with his agenda of liberating the country from poverty and treasury looting.

He said Nigerians should not allow a repeat of 1985 history when Buhari regime of discipline and prudence was ousted to pave way for corruption and retrogression.

Otunba Gani Zubair, the coordinator of Buhari/Osinbajo 2019 Project, said the group was formed because of the dysfunction within APC orchestrated by the defection in the National Assembly.

He said the objective of the movement, among others, is to counter all forces against the President and mobilise the people for his re-election.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports the the Information minister inaugurated the volunteers and charged them to sensitise the grassroots to the achievements of the Buhari’s administration.

Mr Festus Keyamo (SAN) human rights lawyer and the Director Media, Buhari Campaign Organisation delivered the lecture on the theme: “Milestones of Sustainable Economic and Social Political Development in Nigeria”.

Sen. Shehu Sani, on Thursday, paid Sallah homage to President Muhammadu Buhari at Daura, Katsina State, and thanked him for intervening in the crisis he faced with the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kaduna State.

Sani, representing Kaduna Central in the National Assembly, who spoke to newsmen after a closed door meeting with the President, said they deliberated on issues bordering on strengthening the APC through resolution of all internal strife in the party.

According to him, he used the opportunity to assure the President on the support of his constituency to his re-election bid in 2019.

He said: “I am also here to fully assure him of the support of my constituency, Kaduna Central, to his aspiration for the second term.

“I’m also here to assure him of my own wholehearted support to the success of his administration and his return to office for the second term.

“Those were the basic issues that we discussed with him and other issues that border on the need to strengthen our party; the need to end all internal strife and also the need to put heads, hearts and hands together for the success of his administration and also for the success of the party.’’

The Senator stated that his decision to remain in the APC was not because his grievances against the party leadership in Kaduna state had been addressed, but due to the intervention of President Buhari and the National leadership of the party.

He, therefore, called on all aggrieved members of the APC in the national assembly to put aside parochial interests and join hands with the party in promoting national interest for the general good of all citizens.

“Well, there is no human being without any grievances but when national interest is put at the front side you have to put aside other parochial interests.

“What we need to do as politicians and as people representing those who elected us is to always put the country first and know very well that we have both constitutional and moral duty to work to the progress of Nigeria and of this government.

“So, I think these are the basic issues which we discussed, grievances are natural but we have to know that we have a country that we need to keep and also we have a country that we need to support, so that it can progress,’’ he added.

On whether he has been assured of automatic ticket to seek re-election in 2019, Sani said even he was not so keen about automatic ticket but the party had pledged to reward loyalty.

He, however, stressed that while rewarding members for their loyalty to the party due process must be followed.

“I think the party had made it very clear and known to each and every person that there will be reward for loyalty but in every sense of the word due process of the party needs to be followed

“And as far as we are concerned, what matters most to us is not simply about automatic ticket but about the peaceful and transparent conduct of the 2019 election and also the very need for us as a people and as a nation to know that the fate of the country is on our hands.

“There is the need for us to keep aside all sectional, ethnic and religious differences for the progress of this country and going by the very fact that the President has intervened and chairman of the party has intervened – all family squabbles would certainly come to an end,’’ he said.

The Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMet) has predicted that with the continued influx of moisture, thunderstorms and rains would be expected over most parts of the country for Friday.

NiMet made this known in its Weather Outlook by its Central Forecast Office in Abuja on Thursday.

It said that cloudy conditions would prevail over Sokoto and the northern part of Borno with prospects of thunderstorms over Kano, Gusau, Nguru, Potiskum, Dutse and environs.

The agency predicted thunderstorm during the afternoon and evening period over most places in the northern region.

NiMet added that, day and night temperature in the region would be in the ranges of 26 30 degree celsius and 20 22 degree celsius respectively.

According to it, scattered thunderstorms and rains are expected to prevail across the central states throughout the forecast period.

It added that day and night temperature in the region would be in the range of 27 30 degree celsius and 22 23 degree celsius respectively, except for Jos that would be between 23 and 15 degree celsius.

The agency predicted moderate rains over Ondo, Osogbo, Ibadan, Akure, Ijebu-Ode, Enugu, Awka, Ikom, Calabar and environs during the morning hours.

It said that coudy conditions would be anticipated over Ilorin, Shaki and Iseyin axis with prospects of moderate rains over the rest of the southern region.

NiMet said that day and night temperature in the region would be in the range of 26 30 degree celsius and 21 24 degree celsius respectively.

Source: NAN

Men in Romania are the biggest alcohol drinkers in the world, guzzling eight drinks a day on average. They are followed by men in Portugal, Luxembourg, Lithuania and Ukraine , with seven units a day.

Ukranian women who drink were in a league of their own, putting away more than four glasses or shots every 24 hours, followed by Andorra, Luxembourg, Belarus, Sweden, Denmark, Ireland and Britain, all averaging about three per day.

The findings were made in a major study of 195 nations by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington.

Among men, drinking alcohol in 2016 was most widespread in Denmark (97 percent), along with Norway, Argentina, Germany, and Poland (94 percent).

In Asia, South Korean men took the lead, with 91 percent hitting the bottle at least once in a while.

Among women, Danes also ranked first (95 percent), followed by Norway (91 percent), Germany and Argentina (90 percent), and New Zealand (89 percent).

The most abstemious nations were those with Muslim-majority populations.

Source: NAN

Even an occasional glass of wine or beer increases the risk of health problems and dying, according to a major study on drinking in 195 nations that attributes 2.8 million premature deaths worldwide each year to alcohol.

There is no safe level of alcohol, said Max Griswold, a researcher at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, Washington and lead author for a consortium of more than 500 experts, including some Nigerians.

Despite recent research showing that light-to-moderate drinking reduces heart disease, the new study found that alcohol use is more likely than not to do harm.

The protective effect of alcohol was offset by the risks, Griswold told AFP in summarising the results, published in medical journal The Lancet on Friday.

Overall, the health risks associated with alcohol rose in line with the amount consumed each day.

Compared to abstinence, imbibing one standard drink 10 grammes of alcohol, equivalent to a small beer, glass of wine or shot of spirits per day, for example, ups the odds of developing at least one of two dozen health problems by about half-a-percent, the researchers reported.

Looked at one way, that seems like a small increment: 914 out of 100,000 teetotallers will encounter those problems, compared to 918 people who imbibe seven times per week.

But at the global level, that additional risk of 0.5 percent among (once-a-day) drinkers corresponds to about 100,000 additional deaths each year, said senior author Emmanuela Gakidou, a professor at the University of Washington and a director at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Those are excess deaths, in other words, that could be avoided, she told AFP.

The risk climbs in a steep J-curve, the study found.

An average of two drinks per day, for example, translated into a 7.0 percent hike in disease and injury compared to those who opt for abstinence.

With five units of alcohol per day, the likelihood of serious consequences jumps by 37 percent.

The less is better, none is best finding jibes with the World Health Organizations long-standing position, but is at odds with many national guidelines, especially in the developed world.

Britains health authority, for example, suggests not exceeding 14 drinks per week to keep health risks from alcohol to a low level.

There is always a lag between the publication of new evidence and the modification and adoption of revised guidelines, said Gakidou, who admitted to being an occasional drinker herself.

The evidence shows what the evidence shows, and I like 2.4 billion other people on the planet that also consume alcohol need to take it seriously.

Overall, drinking was the seventh leading risk factor for premature death and disease in 2016, accounting for just over two percent of deaths in women and nearly seven percent in men.

The top six killers are high blood pressure, smoking, low-birth weight and premature delivery, high blood sugar (diabetes), obesity and pollution.

But in the 15-49 age bracket, alcohol emerged as the most lethal factor, responsible for more than 12 percent of deaths among men, the study found.

The main causes of alcohol-related deaths in this age group were tuberculosis, road injuries and self-harm, mainly suicide.

We now understand that alcohol is one of the major causes of death in the world today, said Lancet Editor Richard Horton. We need to act now. We need to act urgently to prevent these millions of deaths. And we can.

This study used 694 data sources on individual and population-level alcohol consumption, along with 592 prospective and retrospective studies on the risk of alcohol use. More than 500 GBD collaborators, such as researchers, academics, and others from more than 40 nations contributed to the study, according to Max Griswold, senior researcher and lead author.

With the largest collected evidence base to date, our study makes the relationship between health and alcohol clear drinking causes substantial health loss, in myriad ways, all over the world, Griswold said.

In 2016, eight of the leading 10 countries with lowest death rates attributable to alcohol use among 15- to 49-year-olds were in the Middle East: Kuwait, Iran, Palestine, Libya, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, and Syria. The other two were Maldives and Singapore.

Conversely, seven of the leading 10 countries with highest death rates were in the Baltic, Eastern European, or Central Asian regions, specifically Russia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Mongolia, Latvia, and Kazakhstan. The other three were Lesotho, Burundi, and Central African Republic.

Kings College London professor Robyn Burton, who did not take part in the study, described it as the most comprehensive estimate of the global burden of alcohol use to date.

Source: NAN

Two honest security guards at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja,
who had earned the commendations of President Muhammadu Buhari and many Nigerians, were on Thursday rewarded with N250,000 each.

The guards, Mr Achi Daniel and Mr Francis Emepueaku of Halogen Securities, had returned a bag full of dollars and jewellery, which belonged to a Nigerian who returned from America

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Daniel was with his colleague, Emepueaku, when he found the bag on Aug.18 at the airport.

Daniel said: Inside the bag, we saw a mobile phone, jewellery and huge amount of money in dollars and several other documents.

At that point, I went straight to the managers office who now put a call through to somebody in Atlanta Georgia, and the person happened to be daughter of the owner of the bag.

If the money was in multi-millions of foreign currencies, I would still have returned it.

I saw the bag on a trolley at the car park, and I said to myself that somebody must have forgotten it there.

It was not padlocked and without opening it, I went to the ground floor with the bag to meet my supervisor, Daniel told newsmen at the event.

The security guard said that it was not his first time of returning money in foreign currencies to their rightful owners.

When they returned (passengers involved), they were jittery that some of the items in the bag might have vanished.

But after crosschecking it, she (owner) discovered that everything was intact and the family attempted to give us some amount of money as a form of appreciation, which we rejected, telling them that we were doing our job.

It never crossed my mind to steal the money; I wouldnt have done that because it was not my first time of finding such and returning to the owners.

No amount of money would make me to take what does not belong to me. I believe my own time will come and at the right time, Daniel said.

Also, Mr Saleh Dunoma, the Managing Director, Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), said that several other related cases had been recorded at the nations airports.

Dunoma, who was represented at the event by Mr Salisu Daura, the FAAN Director of Engineering Services, said that the duos act gave confidence and credibility to the agencys security profiling system.

He said that the duo would forever be remembered in the annals of the industry as role models, reference points, shining lights and good ambassadors.

Some others may look at you and tag you stupid, but I want to assure you that by virtue of this act, you have secured seats for yourselves in the comity of those with credibility and integrity.

I want to advice other members of staff to emulate this great virtue and become role models, just like these two security guards, he said.

Source: NAN

Seal, the British singer with Nigerian roots, visited Femi Kuti at the new Afrika Shrine in Lagos on Thursday.

He came with his son Henry and met with Kutis son, Made, and sister Yeni.

Yeni, the AfrikaShrine, all shared on Instagram pictures of the truly August visitor, whose real name is Henry Olusegun Adeola Samuel.

Seal and I at the Shrine today! Awesome!!!, wrote Yeni Kuti.

My Brother Seal, Femi announced on his own Instagram account, while @AfrikaShrine announced Seals departure. Femi was heard on the accompanying video telling Henry to feel free to come to Nigeria to spend his holiday.

However, Seal has not announced the visit on his own Instagram verified page.

Seal, a multiple award winner, was born in London to a Nigerian mother, Adebisi Ogundeji, and a Brazilian father, Francis Samuel on 19 February 1963.However, he was raised by a foster family inWestminster, London.

Source: NAN