Malicious app incidents are not that uncommon for Google Play Store, and it appears that it has happened again. While Google Play Store should make sure that no potentially dangerous apps reach the store, it appears that their filters are not as good as they should be.
Recently 22 apps malicious apps were discovered on Google Play Store. The bad news is that these apps total around 2 million downloads. It appears that these applications had, in fact, a malicious backdoor that was exploiting in an ad-clicking scheme.
The apps displayed ads and clicked on them in order to generate money. The ads were impossible to notice as they appeared in a window zero pixels high and zero pixels wide. However, while users could not see the apps, this does not mean that their devices weren’t affected. The applications would drain the battery life and they used huge amounts of data in the background.
The Sparkle Flashlight app was the first modified one. It was changed to include a secret ap downloader. This happened in June and the same technique was applied to a couple other applications. Most users believed that The Sparkle Flashlight app was reliable since it has been on the Play Store since 2016.
The apps
Here are the 22 apps that were removed from the Google Play Store:
- AK Blackjack
- Animal Match
- Box Stack
- Cliff Diver
- Color Tiles
- HexaBlocks
- HexaFall
- Jelly Slice
- Join Up
- Just Flashlight
- Magnifeye
- Math Solver
- Neon Pong
- PairZap
- Roulette Mania
- ShapeSorter
- Snake Attack
- Space Rocket
- Sparkle FlashLight
- Table Soccer
- Tak A Trip
- Zombie Killer
They are no longer available on Google Play Store, but there are plenty of users who have them installed on their devices. If you have downloaded any of these apps, make sure that you delete them right away.
Nora Reynolds is a major in biology and a minor in Biological Basis of Behavior, writing about science in general. She also likes to try new gadgets and sports about the AI new era.
