Over 50 Apps in Google Play Infected 55 Million Users with Adware

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Apr 21, 2016
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More than 50 apps found in the Google Play Store have exposed some 55 million Android users to adware in what seems to be the billionth time this has happened.

According to security researchers from Sophos, the Android XavirAd was detected on plenty of apps in the Play Store. The adware displays annoying ads to users who had their devices infected and collects personal information that gets sent to a remote server. So far, it is believed up to 55 million users have been infected.

Some of those over 50 Google Play apps that have been discovered carrying the adware have more one million downloads. Overall, the number rises to some 55 million downloads. One of those ads is Add Text on a Photo, which is extremely popular.

Read more: Over 50 Apps in Google Play Infected 55 Million Users with Adware
 

Winter Soldier

Level 25
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Top Poster
Well-known
Feb 13, 2017
1,486
Quite difficult to predict or analyze new apps in real-time on the Play Store.
Users can be infected from the moment of publication at the time of removal from the Store.
Probably it would be useful to install only really necessary and well-known apps.
 

Sven

Level 10
Verified
Well-known
Nov 5, 2013
478
It's this kind of nonsense, along with abysmal OS updates, that will drive me to the fruit fone.

I agree, me too. iOS is a really restricted operating system and apps can not truly interact with each other or with system files, which leads to superior security compared to Google's VERY open system.
 

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