Pokémon GO has been all over the news this week with the public launch of the game in some countries. Niantic is currently addressing a few issues that have arisen before the game will be pushed to further countries. Below are a few of the news and issues that players should be aware of.

iOS version of Pokémon Go requests full access permission for the user's Google account

"We recently discovered that the Pokémon Go account creation process on iOS erroneously requests full access permission for the user's Google account. However, Pokémon Go only accesses basic Google profile information (specifically, your user ID and e-mail address) and no other Google account information is or has been accessed or collected. Once we became aware of this error, we began working on a client-side fix to request permission for only basic Google account information, in line with the data we actually access. Google has verified that no other information has been received or accessed by Pokémon Go or Niantic. Google will soon reduce Pokémon Go's permission to only the basic profile data that Pokémon Go needs, and users do not need to take any actions themselves." (Niantic)


Source: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/07/pokemon-go-on-ios-gets-full-access-to-your-google-account/

Servers Overloaded causes a pause on the International Rollout of Pokémon Go

Niantic CEO John Hanke told Business Insider that they are aware of the problem many users are having with server availability and working hard on fixing the problem. While they fix the server capacity, the international rollout of the game to countries like the United Kingdom and the Netherlands is “paused until we’re comfortable”.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com.au/pokemon-go-international-rollout-paused-2016-7

Pokémon GO sends Nintendo's Stock Soaring up 25%

Nintendo shares surged 25% in Tokyo on Monday, July 11th, 2016 as a result of the launch of the game a few days earlier and it's stock continued to rise on Tuesday up 34%. It has also boosted the market value of Nintendo Co. by over $9 billion.




Source: http://www.wsj.com/articles/pokemon-chasing-investors-send-nintendo-shares-soaring-1468228206

Infected Pokémon GO APK carries dangerous Android backdoor

While users maybe waiting for the game to launch in their country, some players may attempt to bypass the Google Play store and manually install Pokémon GO via a downloaded APK. Players may download an infected version of the game by not downloading it from an official source.

Proofpoint researchers discovered an infected Android version of the newly released mobile game Pokemon GO. This specific APK was modified to include the malicious remote access tool (RAT) called DroidJack (also known as SandroRAT), which would virtually give an attacker full control over a victim’s phone. The DroidJack RAT has been described in the past, including by Symantec and Kaspersky.

Source: https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/droidjack-uses-side-load-backdoored-pokemon-go-android-app