Technology
Google Play has 17 Trojan applications which can steal your personally identifiable information:
Google Play has at least 17 apps, if the cyber security company Avast is to be believed, that belong to a Trojans family known as HiddenAds. The apps were part of a major HiddenAds campaign, which initially targeted Indian and South-East Asian users.
Avast researchers found that these apps are masked as games but designed to show intrusive ads and to steal users ' personal data. The scientists noticed that the Trojan apps can hide their icons from the devices concerned and display timed ads, which can not be skipped.
Initially, the team of Avast researchers found 47 apps from the Trojan HiddenAds family. However, when Google receives the antivirus report, 30 of these applications have been removed.
A timer begins inside the app when the user downloads the app. The user has an authorization to play the game over a certain period of time, after which the timer triggers the app's hide icon, Avakian analyst Jakub Vávra explained in a blog post. It starts displaying ads throughout the device after the icon is hidden, without the need for any additional user actions.
Some of Avast's Trojan apps claim that they even open the web browser so that users can show intrusive ads. Because the apps conceal its icon after some time, the victims can not understand the source of the ads that they see on their devices. That said, Trojan applications can still be uninstalled via the device's app manager.
The team from Avast found that each app had its own developer, a generic e-mail address, on Google Play. "The terms of service in the discovered applications are identical, which are probably indicative of one actor's organized campaign," said Vávra.
In total, more than 1,5 crore-times were downloaded for applications carrying Trojan HiddenAds. The most popular tracks live during the time of filing include: Skate Board – NEW, Find Hidden Differences, Tony Shoot – NEW and Stacking Guys.
The researchers found that in Brazil, India and Turkey the HiddenAds App campaign was most prevalent. But it also extends through other regions.
At the time this story was published, an email sent by Google did not generate a response.
This was not the first time
This is not the first time Google Play has apps that could steal user information. This is particularly important. Avast detected apps in July last year which were installed with the nature of stalkers 1,30,000 times in combination. Bot mitigation firm White Ops also reveal that at least 38 Google apps from its Google Play Store that infested Android devices with out-of-context adverts were removed in its research article published earlier this month.
As Vávra said, as there are individual developers for each application, it is indeed hard for Google to prevent adware campaigns. Campaigns, such as HiddenAds, can be put in the Play Store by hide-and-go or slowly introduce malicious features that users have once downloaded, the analyst said.
Steps to avoid such applications
Before installing them on their devices, Avast told users to scrutinize the permission of the application requests. The privacy policy and conditions of the apps that are installed should also take you some time. In addition, the downloading of the app which has received numerous negative reviews is recommended to users.
