Security alert about 38 malicious apps in Google Play Store

This is not the first time this has happened. And it won't be the last either. How many times have we told you that malicious applications have been detected in the Google Play Store itself,the official app store for Android? In fact, on many occasions and after fraudulent apps have been located, they have remained available in the store, ready to infect the phone of any unsuspecting person.

We've now learned that Google has just removed a whopping 38 malicious apps from its storeThe operation was actually launched by White Ops, a tool that tracked a fraud operation that, through the Google Play Store, was dedicated to infesting devices with adware with the help of malicious applications.

The problem is, not that Google has struck down all those apps once and for all, but that those apps, according to the White Ops research team, have been downloaded more than 20 million times.

What damage did these rogue apps cause?

According to research, apps were running on computers and causing ads to pop up that were out of context. They even opened different URLs that had nothing to do with the purpose of the app.

Experts also found that some of these applications were very difficult to remove.In fact, they were designed to make it very difficult to knock them out. How did they do it? Well, hiding the icon of the application itself and its location in the different folders of the device.

And what kind of apps would we be talking about?

Well, let's get down to business, because what you're probably worried about right now is to know if you've had or still have any of these apps installed on your mobile.

What you should know about these apps is that they have been moving around in the Google Play Store since January 2019. The apps were all related to beauty : They were used to take selfies or were applications with filters to use when taking photos.

After detecting that something strange was happening with these apps, Google launched a scanning system to try to locate the problem and delete, if necessary, the applications from the store.It was then that those responsible for these apps sophisticated the system, making the apps much more elusive.

Sometimes these apps were modified, causing ads to be disabled and therefore the fraudulent codes disappeared. What happened was that they did not remove all payload from these apps and somehow left the fraud activity dormant.

The purge is still underway: it is an ongoing research effort

Well, Google's work to continue purging rogue apps doesn't end here. Hackers keep trying, so it's important to continue active surveillance and investigation Last year, Google struck down as many as 85 apps for Android infected with adware. Many of these apps came from Chinese groups, whose behavior was deceptive and fraudulent.

Be careful with what you download, even from the Google Play Store:

• Make sure they are necessary or essential apps (avoid flashlights, wallpapers, etc.)
• Learn about the app's rating and be suspicious if it has a lot of negative comments
• If you want to download an app, always do it starting from the official website of its manager (even more so if what you are downloading is a bank app, for example)

In case you are interested in knowing exactly what they are ( although luckily they are no longer in the Google Play Store) here is the list:

• Yoroko Camera
• Solu Camera
• Lite Beauty Camera
• Beauty Collage Lite
• Beauty & Filters Camera
• Photo Collage & Beauty Camera
• Beauty Camera Selfie Filter
• Gaty Beauty Camera
• Pand Selife Beauty Camera
• Catoon Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera
• Benbu Selife Beauty Camera
• Pinut Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
• Mood Photo Editor & Selife Beauty Camera
• Rose Photo Editor & Selfie Beauty Camera
• Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
• Fog Selife Beauty Camera
• First Selife Beauty Camera & Photo Editor
• Vanu Selife Beauty Camera
• Sun Pro Beauty Camera
• Funny Sweet Beauty Camera
• Little Bee Beauty Camera
• Beauty Camera & Photo Editor Pro
• Grass Beauty Camera
• Ele Beauty Camera
• Flower Beauty Camera
• Best Selfie Beauty Camera
• Orange Camera
• Sunny Beauty Camera
• Pro Selfie Beauty Camera
• Selfie Beauty Camera Pro
• Elegant Beauty Cam-2019