If you are using these 17 apps, beware! Find out why Google has removed these apps.
Google has removed 17 Android applications from its official distribution service platform -Play Store. The 17 apps were infected with the Joker malware, which is also called Bread malware. The security researchers at Zscaler, which is a California-based IT security company, identified these malicious apps.
All these apps were affected by Joker malware
This malware was subscribing to unwanted premium paid services from users’ accounts.
Google has removed 17 apps affected by Joker malware from the Play Store. An IT security company based in California has identified 17 dangerous malware apps. These apps were influenced by Joker malware. Joker is not a new malware but has been reported by many app developers recently.
Even before this Google was in action mode
Google also removed 11 Joker-influenced apps from the Play Store in July. Removed 6 more apps in early September. Now the company has taken action on 17 more apps. These 17 apps were affected by Joker malware.
The app was downloaded 1.20 lakh times
Malware Effected These 17 apps were identified by Zscaler, an IT security company based in California. The app has received over 1.20 lakh downloads on the Google Play Store. Although it is no longer available for download. If you are using any such apps, delete them immediately.
Joker malware
The Joker is a malicious bat. It is able to download new malware into the user’s phone. Once downloaded to the phone, the malware automatically clicks on many types of premium subscriptions from users’ mobile numbers. The user is unaware of this. Small and hidden codes are used for this. So it becomes difficult to investigate about the Joker.
Subscribe to paid service
The job of this malware is to make fake clicks on SMS, which allows users to subscribe to unwanted premium paid services from their accounts. The user has no information about it. This spyware is designed to steal SMS, contact list and phone data.
“This spyware is designed to steal SMS messages, contact lists, and device information, along with silently signing up the victim for premium wireless application protocol (WAP) services,” Zscaler security researcher Viral Gandhi said.
As soon as Google was notified about the 17 malicious apps that intend to gain unauthorised access to the users’ data, the company’s Android Security team took prompt action to remove the apps from the Play Store.
આ માહિતી વાંચો ગુજરાતીમાં અહિ ક્લિક કરો.
But there were still a total of around 120,000 downloads for the identified malicious apps, as Zscaler noted in a blog post.
The 17 apps deleted from Play Store by Google include:
–All Good PDF Scanner
–Mint Leaf Message-Your Private Message
–Unique Keyboard – Fancy Fonts & Free Emoticons
–Tangram App Lock
–Direct Messenger
–Private SMS
–One Sentence Translator – Multifunctional Translator
–Style Photo Collage
–Meticulous Scanner
–Desire Translate
–Talent Photo Editor – Blur focus
–Care Message
–Part Message
–Paper Doc Scanner
–Blue Scanner
–Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF
–All Good PDF Scanner
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