There have been a lot of
different security threats and vulnerabilities discovered across a wide range of Android apps over the years, but it’s hard to remember a malware-spreading campaign quite as scary as
the latest one documented by Doctor Web researchers.
Now there are no less than 101 (other) apps found to contain spyware-injecting modules, and just in case that number isn’t enough to send chills down your spine, here’s another: 421 million. That’s how many combined Play Store downloads the titles listed below have managed to collect (at the very least), and theoretically, that’s also how many people are at risk of being spied on.
The culprits
The issue
Beyond simply flooding your phone with ads and slowing down its performance or, well, ticking you off while you’re trying to have a little fun with some casual card games or video editing tools, all these apps are currently hiding or have hidden at some point in their existence the malicious ability to collect information on files stored on your devices sans user approval.
This is an incredibly popular app that you should probably delete or avoid downloading from Google Play.
Even worse, the spyware-containing marketing SDK (software development kit) attached to these apps can transfer files from your Android phone to remote servers without your knowledge, as well as gather all kinds of sensitive data related to different sensors that can then be used to track your every move, both on and offline.
The truly scary thing about the above list is that it includes many titles still available for Play Store installation, the first ten of which are hugely popular and not that poorly reviewed.
That’s because a number of apps, like Zapya, have actually gotten rid of their trojan modules with recent updates, suggesting their developers were not aware of the spyware that was added by third-party advertisers and bad actors.
While some titles were pulled by
Google upon Dr. Web’s discoveries, others evidently got pardoned, which could mean they are now completely safe to use. But are you willing to take that risk and can you trust a developer that either wanted to spy on you and was caught red-handed or never had that intention yet allowed malware to spread freely through its apps?
