Tens of thousands of apps are available to download on the Google Play Store, ensuring that every need of Android users is catered to, but a security company has issued a warning against six apps that could access your bank account.
Security Company Issues a Warning
According to a report by Mirror, researchers from the company Pradeo have issued a warning against the apps that are loaded with malware known as Joker.
Pradeo has posted an official blog post pertaining to the dangerous apps, saying that Joker is a type of Fleeceware, aptly named as this malware could fleece the money of its victims.
"Joker is a malicious bot (categorized as Fleeceware), which main activity is to simulate clicks and intercept SMS to subscribe to unwanted paid premium services unbeknownst to users," the researchers said. "By using as little code as possible and thoroughly hiding it, Joker generates a very discreet footprint that can be tricky to detect."
Basically, it can access your bank account and will drain it from your savings.
Joker is not a newly-discovered malware, as it appears that the company has been finding them in hundreds of other apps before.
List of Newly-Found Malicious Apps on Play Store
Now, six new apps that can be found on Google Play Store are added to the list, namely:
- Safety AppLock
- Emoji Wallpaper
- Push Message-Texting&SMS
- Fingertip Gamebox
- Convenient Scanner 2
- Separate Doc Scanner
What's alarming is that over 200,000 Android users have already downloaded these apps, so the researchers are urging everyone who has installed this software to delete them from their phones immediately.
The security company has already reached out to Google regarding their discovery, and as of writing, two apps have already been deleted from Play Store, although four more remains, so the researchers are urging everyone to be more aware of the apps that they are installing.
According to Dark Reading, the company was also able to detect 11 other malicious apps on Google Play Store that had the same malware back in July of this year.
Based on the report, a malware campaign featured free high-end athletic shoes to its victims, but of course, they were never delivered, instead, they unknowingly received a malware that attaches itself to the device.
Although Google is doing its best to remove these fraudulent and dangerous apps, the researchers at Pradeo say that replacement apps are already showing up.
Google Security Flaw
Previously, an Android security bug has also been discovered by security startup Oversecured
The security flaw was found on the company's Play Core library, which allows malicious apps to siphon private user data, according to a report by TechCrunch, and that exploiting the bug was "pretty easy."
Google has confirmed the existence of the bug, but fortunately, they were able to fix it.
"We appreciate the researcher reporting this issue to us, and as a result, it was patched in March," a spokesperson from the company said.
Oversecured founder, Sergey Toshin, urged app developers to update their apps with the most updated Play Core library to remove the bug.
This article is owned by TechTimes
Written by: Nhx Tingson
