In the first days of 2019, Google removed no less than 85 apps from its Play Store because they were full of adware, according to a blog by security specialist Trend Micro. Android malware therefore remains a major problem this year.
The new year is less than two weeks old and the Google Play Store had to be cleaned again. According to the security specialists, no less than 85 Android apps had to be removed this time because they were full of adware. In total, these malware apps had already been downloaded 9 million times.
Games and remote control apps
In concrete terms, this mainly concerns game apps and apps that pretend to work as remote control. These apps are full of code for the recently discovered AndrodOS-HiddenAd adware family. This adware can display unsolicited full screen ads, hide itself and monitor the unlock functionality of mobile devices. The software also runs in the background of the infected mobile device.
In their blog, Trend Micro specialists use screenshots to show full-screen overlays, among other things, which, when closed, show even more advertisements. In addition, the adware can display fullscreen advertisements every 15 minutes to half an hour, without end users having the infected app open at any given time.
Removal difficult
The specialists indicate that the malicious apps can easily be removed by hand. According to them, this is a tricky story, because every 15-30 minutes or after unlocking the screen, a full size ad appears. This makes it ultimately very difficult to access the Android settings.
This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.
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