Malicious Android photography, gaming apps downloaded 8 million times from Google Play

silversurfer

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Google has eradicated 85 Android apps from the Google Play Store after researchers found they were nothing more than adware posing as legitimate software.

Trend Micro mobile threat response engineer Ecular Xu said the apps masqueraded as photography utilities and games to lure Android handset users to download them, but once installed, they would push advert after advert and make it exceedingly difficult to close ads and maintain general smartphone functionality.

The adware-laden applications included Magic Camera: Make Magical Photos, Blur Photo Editor, Background Replacement, Find the difference: smart detective, and Color House2019.
Each would serve adware detected by the cybersecurity firm as AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH. In total, the apps account for over eight million downloads.
 

[correlate]

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Google really need to do something about this. I don't know why they don't implement better security, a more strict policy for submitting apps to the app store and a better scanner or scanners.

Thanks for the share.
A good idea to eliminate the fake and dangerous programs as some companies are providing applications to spy on the presence of others is not a coincidence on Google Play Please be treated seriously.
 

upnorth

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Google really need to do something about this. I don't know why they don't implement better security, a more strict policy for submitting apps to the app store and a better scanner or scanners.

I agree, but many of these apps ( not all ) is sadly turned malicious later through updates. Google has improved yes, but they still got a lot more to work on.
There are some ways to help lessen the adware’s impact. For example, the latest Samsung Android devices have a feature that restricts the creation of shortcuts on the home screen, which can help users uninstall it. Android 8.0 and later versions also have a function that asks for user confirmation before an application is allowed to create a shortcut. The apps will first hide their icon before generating a shortcut on the home screen; if the shortcut isn’t created, users could be made more aware of its more unusual behaviors.
 

dinosaur07

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Google really need to do something about this. I don't know why they don't implement better security, a more strict policy for submitting apps to the app store and a better scanner or scanners.

Thanks for the share.

They are simply irresponsible interested only in getting cash and a lot of traffic for ad revenues. Sorry to say that but nowadays no app should be installed without being previously checked for malware so an antimalware solution should be installed on every phone.
 

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