September 29, 2020 6:57:22 pm
These banned apps included Blue Scanner, Care Message, Part Message, Direct Messenger, Tangram Applock, Private SMS, All Good PDF Scanner, Unique Keyboard, Mint-leaf message, One Orase Translator – Multifunctional Translator, Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF, Paper Doc Scanner, Care Message, Style Photo College, Meticulous scanner, Desire translate and Talent photo editor – Blur focus. (Image: Joker Movie)
Amid the prevailing risk of a crucial privacy breach and unwanted access to personal data, the Google Play Store has decided to ban 17 apps from its platform. According to a cybersecurity company, these applications contained malicious malware that sent confidential information of the users of those applications in an insidious way.
According to information cited by Zcaler’s Viral Gandhi, the ‘Joker malware’ was designed to steal personal SMS, contact information along with device information. It was also enrolling users in premium wireless application (WAP) services without their knowledge.
Zscaler also said that so far almost 1,20,000 downloads of those 17 apps were from the Play Store that were infected by the spyware.
These banned apps included Blue Scanner, Care Message, Part Message, Direct Messenger, Tangram Applock, Private SMS, All Good PDF Scanner, Unique Keyboard, Mint-leaf message, One Orase Translator – Multifunctional Translator, Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF, Paper Doc Scanner, Care Message, Style Photo College, Meticulous scanner, Desire translate and Talent photo editor – Blur focus.
These types of malicious threats hover over many third-party apps listed on the Google Play Store. Previously, the Play Store revoked access to six applications, as a cyber company discovered that they were malicious. According to Google’s blog post, the Android security team has claimed to have removed around 17,000 apps since the beginning of 2017.
Also read: What is the Joker malware that affected the applications in the Google Play store?
The ‘Joker’ malware is present in many applications and represents a substantial challenge for the Play Store in terms of security. In fact, in July Google also removed another package of infected applications from the platform. These malwares use a different technique called ‘Dropper’ to bypass Google’s security scan and sneak onto the user’s device.
Thus, when user downloads any wildcard infected application on their device, it would initially only ask for permission to access sensitive information and credentials, but does not perform any dangerous activity on first run, but gradually removes its other components and malware to through the application to perform malicious activities. Eventually, users should be vigilant while downloading apps and should check the scope of permissions that a particular app asks for, to avoid any unwanted spy threat.
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