172 Malicious Apps With Over 335 Million Installs Found on Google Play Store: Report
The malicious category includes the applications that are infected by adware, subscription scams, hidden ads, SMS premium subscription, and more.
San Francisco, Oct 2: Researchers have detected a total of 172 infected apps with over 335 million installs found on Googles Play Store in September alone. ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko said that the majority of those 172 malicious apps were harbouring adware, Threatpost reported on Tuesday. The malicious category includes the applications that are infected by adware, subscription scams, hidden ads, SMS premium subscription, and more. Google Starts Testing Assistant in Chrome for Ticket Booking.
"Unwanted ads or adware is popular category because after installation it does not request any further inputs, like banking trojans, and can simply generate revenue for developers right from the beginning," Threatpost quoted Stefanko.
"Also, it is not as difficult to create adware as it is to create Android ransomware or banking Trojans," Stefanko added.
As per the report, most of the applications that were found to be malicious have been removed. To recall, last month Google removed 46 apps from the marketplace belonging to Chinese mobile developer iHandy.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 02, 2019 12:58 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).