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35 Malware Apps Found Hiding on the Google Play Store — Here Are Their Names
We all know that we should be careful about the apps we download to our phones. After all, we've all heard the horror stories about malicious software making its way onto people's devices and wreaking havoc.
However, it can be difficult to spot the difference between a legitimate app and a malware-infected one. And even if you are diligent about checking reviews and permissions, there's always a chance that something could slip through the cracks.
Hackers can access all sorts of information through malware. Image Credit: Shutterstock
Unfortunately, that's exactly what happened recently when 35 malware-infected apps were found hiding on the Google Play Store.
If you have any of these apps on your phone, it's important to delete them immediately:
Walls light - Wallpapers Pack: 100K+
Big Emoji - Keyboard: 100K+
Grad Wallpapers - 3D Backdrops: 100K+
Engine Wallpapers - Live & 3D: 100K+
Stock Wallpapers - 4K & HD: 100K+
EffectMania - Photo Editor: 100K+
Art Filter - Deep Photoeffect: 100K+
Fast Emoji Keyboard: 100K+
Create Sticker for Whatsapp: 100K+
Math Solver - Camera Helper: 100K+
Photopix Effects - Art Filter: 100K+
Led Theme - Colorful Keyboard: 100K+
Keyboard - Fun Emoji, Sticker: 50K+
Smart Wifi: 10K+
My GPS Location: 10K+
Image Warp Camera: 100K
Art Girls Wallpaper HD: 100K+
Cat Simulator: 50K+
Smart QR Creator: 10K+
Colorize Old Photo: 500+
GPS Location Finder: 100K
Girls Art Wallpaper: 10K+
Smart QR Scanner: 50K+
GPS Location Maps: 100K
Volume Control: 50K+
Secret Horoscope: 10K+
Smart GPS Location: 10K+
Animated Sticker Master: 100K
Personality Charging Show: 100K
Sleep Sounds: 100K
QR Creator: 10K+
Media Volume Slider: 10K+
Secret Astrology: 10K+
Colorize Photos: 10K+
Phi 4K Wallpaper - Anime HD: 50K+
These malicious apps were discovered by cybersecurity technology company Bitdefender in a report that was released on Wednesday, August 17.
According to the report, these apps are aggressive in their deception — they trick users into downloading them by masquerading as legitimate apps. Once the user installs the app, it changes its name and app icon to remain hidden on the device.
The goal of these malicious apps is to serve you an excessive amount of ads – aside from annoying you (and probably everyone else), these ads generate revenue for the developers of these malware apps. Worse yet, developers are said to be running these ads through their own framework which bypasses the protections typically implemented by Android – allowing them to link to malware through these advertisements!
To protect yourself against this type of threat, here are some tips:
- Keep your device updated at all times by installing security patches as soon as they're released by Google or your OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer, for example, Samsung). This way, you have the best possible protection against cyber threats such as viruses and hacking attempts on your device's software and firmware. Plus, keeping your software up-to-date can help reduce the battery drain caused by aging software versions not being able to run efficiently anymore with current hardware demands.
- Install a reputable mobile security application on your phone to help you monitor and block potentially harmful applications or suspicious URLs from being installed on your device. Some of these applications can also scan the apps already installed on your device to check if they are malicious or not.
- Always read the app description thoroughly before installing an application. If there are too many ‘downloads’ but hardly any ‘reviews’, be wary of it. Look at the reviews that have been written as well – if most seem poorly written, fake, or even about another app altogether, that's a bad sign. Also, take note of the permissions an app asks you for upon installation – does it make sense for a GPS app to ask for your camera and microphone but not your location?
If you think that you may have accidentally downloaded one (or more) of these malware-infected apps onto your device, we recommend performing a factory reset immediately (do NOT skip this step). Note, however, that this is the ‘nuclear option’ - if you do this, you’ll lose all of your existing apps, texts, pictures, etc. This will eradicate any potential threats currently residing in your device and prevent them from spreading further. Plus, with all of your data gone already anyway (hopefully), there is no need to do additional logins such as changing your passwords.
To learn more about how to do a factory reset on your Android device, please watch this video below. These instructions are specific for a Samsung device, but the steps are similar for other Android devices.
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