Merry Christmas! … I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and this article contains a small additional gift. Since this is the last edition of the winners-and-losers column for the year 2021, I’ve picked out a little something special. There are two topics that represent the most important topics of the tech year for me: data protection and cybersecurity.
This week the DuckDuckGo team announced that they are working on a desktop browser. This should assert itself as a robust data protection solution and therefore deserves to end the year as the winner of this edition. The Joker malware, found in an Android app with over half a million downloads, is the loser.
Before we get into the best and worst news of the past seven days, though, let’s take a look at some of the top NextPit headlines from the past week:
The NextPit Christmas story
Winner of the Week: A Really Private Browser
If 2021 wasn’t the year when we could finally get a little more control over our private data. Apple launched app tracking transparency; Google the Privacy Dashboard and Android the Private Compute Core! So my expectation for 2022 is that it will be the year when our awareness of data protection grows.
This week the DuckDuckGo team announced that their privacy-focused desktop browser will be launched in 2022. And it’s not based on Chromium. The idea is to support Windows and macOS while removing unnecessary elements and making the use of the data protection tools as easy as possible. Nevertheless, the team uses the rendering engines provided by the operating systems – primarily WebKit.
According to the official announcement, the range of functions should be similar to today’s DuckDuckGo Privacy Browser for mobile devices. The main thing is that you can use the standard data protection settings, as there are no marketing gimmicks. In addition, it will be possible to delete browser activities and active tabs with just one click.
In addition, internal tests have shown that DuckDuckGo’s private browser is faster than Chrome, which is no surprise.
DuckDuckGo promises to make private surfing extremely easy. / © DuckDuckGo
Why is this the best news of the week in my opinion? Well, people avoid using something they don’t know or understand. By making surfing in private browsers easier, the DuckDuckGo team empowers inexperienced users and becomes another ally in the fight against the exploitation of our browsing data for marketing purposes.
Loser of the Week: The Joker Malware
There were also a large number of repetitive cyberattacks that year. From DDoS attacks (Distributed Denial of Service) to SMS phishing and malware, everything was included. At the end of the year, the Joker virus returned this week, which was found in the Color Message app for Android and has already been installed more than half a million times.
The Joker virus is the ultimate bad joke. / © Tero Vesalainen / Shutterstock.com
The Joker malware has been around for three years and has hijacked a number of apps. According to my colleague Dustin, this virus can do harm by simulating clicks and logging you into premium services. That makes your cell phone bill skyrocket, and guess what? If the operators of the app don’t compensate you, you will lose your money!
Fortunately, the app has been removed from the Google Play Store. But it will definitely not be the last time we write about this type of malware. So this week the Joker virus is on the losing side and represents all the cyberattacks, Trojans and other malware that we want to leave behind in 2022!
That’s it for 2021! We are looking ahead to the next year and of course we want to know from you who your winners and losers are. Let me know in the comments!