In June, Google took over 80 apps from its Play Store just because of how developers were infecting devices with adware, and as a result, the user’s phone was always littered with spam. But unfortunately, the threat is not yet over as the company has rediscovered 25 more malware applications.
Newly discovered apps contain a serious threat, basically what these sinister apps do is steal credential details from Facebook users if they regularly open the account on their phone. This surprising malware has been discovered by the French cyber security firm Evina and they have also confirmed that the applications offer genuine functionality in exchange for infecting devices.
As soon as you install one of these programs, the hidden code that is usually embedded within the app aims to steal personal data in really nasty ways. The malicious code is activated first and then waits when the user opens the Facebook application to begin operations.
The malware also has the potential to imitate Facebook and overlay a web browser window, which directs you to a fake login page, in addition to the Facebook app to distract users on a larger level. And to top it all off, the bogus login page becomes impossible to identify for any normal user because they generally enter their login details, which are then sent to the hackers involved later.
Also, according to Lionel Ferri, Evina CTO, this malware cannot even be identified by Facebook because it appears in front as soon as the application is opened.
While Google has removed the 25 apps after Evina’s confirmation, but if we follow the statistics, most of the listed apps have been available to download for over a year now and the worst fact is that together they may have infected 2.3 million users to date.
Here is a list of the apps that Google has removed from its app store. In case you have any of the apps on your smartphone, it’s time for you to delete them immediately.
Super Wallpapers Flashlight
Padenatef
Wallpaper level
Contour level wallpaper
iPlayer and iWallpaper
Video editor
Color backgrounds
Pedometer
Powerful flashlight
Super bright flashlight
Super flashlight
Solitaire game
Precise QR code scanning
Classic card game
Clean up junk files
Synthetic Z
File manager
Compound Z
Screenshot
Daily Horoscope Wallpapers
Wuxia Reader
More time
Anime Live Wallpaper
IHealth step counter
com.tqyapp.fiction (probably titled: Panda BookHouse)
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