Millions of Android users need to double-check their phones for more than 10 dangerous apps that have been banned from Google Play.
As more than 20 million Android users downloaded 16 apps from the Google Play store, they were secretly hiding malware.
The popular apps – only one of which has been downloaded more than 10 million times – were loaded with a new malware chain called “Clicker”, which is used by online fraudsters to generate illegal advertising revenue.
Security experts at McAfee, a company specializing in information security, discovered this new error, and informed Google of their findings, as Google subsequently deleted the applications from the Play Store.
However, if you download any of them before Google removes them, they will still be on your device, and this means that it is necessary for any user to delete these dangerous applications immediately.
Effects and disadvantages
The impact of these programs will appear on devices that do not delete them, because this malware is running in the background, as this can lead to a decrease in performance as well as faster than a usual battery drain, overheating of the device, in addition to consuming large amounts of monthly mobile data.
Speaking about the new Android threat, McAfee said in a blog post: “The McAfee research team recently identified a new malware clicker that infiltrated Google Play.”
In total, 16 apps previously on Google Play were confirmed to contain malware, with 20 million users purportedly.
The most common applications that contained the malware clicker were: High-Speed Camera with more than 10 million downloads, DxClean with more than 5 million downloads, and Flashlight ) with more than a million users.
Anyone who has downloaded the DexClean app will be disappointed, as the app claimed to help improve phone performance and block annoying ads, but it did the exact opposite.
Affected users cannot detect the threat, because the malware has gone to great lengths to ensure that users do not pay attention to programs running in the background. The malware will not start running in the first hour after installing the hacked application.
The program delays the launch of the malicious software when the user is actively working on their Android device.
You can find a list of malware via this link.
