- A new report has surfaced online, suggesting the presence of 35 malicious apps on the Google Play Store.
- These apps aggressively send advertisements and also change their name and logo after installation.
- Over 2 million users have installed at least one such app on their smartphone.
Installing an app of your choice on your smartphone simply takes a couple of clicks, but you should be wary. Some of the apps come with malware that could harm your handset. A new report from Bitdefender suggests that the Google Play Store has as many as 35 malicious apps that could bloat your phone with malware. The apps reportedly send advertisements and also change their name and logo once they’re installed on your smartphone. Per the report, the apps have been installed on smartphones by potential victims over 2 million times—when considering publicly available data. Here’s the list of the 35 identified apps on the Google Play Store:
Remove these apps or avoid installing them if you come across them:
- Walls light – Wallpapers Pack
- Big Emoji – Keyboard
- Grad Wallpapers – 3D Backdrops
- Engine Wallpapers – Live & 3D
- Stock Wallpapers – 4K & HD
- EffectMania – Photo Editor
- Art Filter – Deep Photoeffect
- Fast Emoji Keyboard
- Create Sticker for Whatsapp
- Math Solver – Camera Helper
- Photopix Effects – Art Filter
- Led Theme – Colorful Keyboard
- Keyboard – Fun Emoji, Sticker
- Smart Wifi
- My GPS Location
- Image Warp Camera
- Art Girls Wallpaper HD
- Cat Simulator
- Smart QR Creator
- Colorize Old Photo
- GPS Location Finder
- Girls Art Wallpaper
- Smart QR Scanner
- GPS Location Maps
- Volume Control
- Secret Horoscope
- Smart GPS Location
- Animated Sticker Master
- Personality Charging Show
- Sleep Sounds
- QR Creator
- Media Volume Slider
- Secret Astrology
- Colorize Photos
- Phi 4K Wallpaper – Anime HD
These apps can harm your phone
Researchers at Bitdefender, which have unearthed 35 apps available on Google Play Store, claim that these apps, after installation, change their name and go on an advertisement spree. “One of the ways cyber-criminals monetize their presence on Google Play is to serve ads to their victims. While this may sound diminutive, these ads served to victims are disrupting the user experience and can link directly to malware”, says Bitdefender in the post.
On the Android app marketplace Play Store, these apps have over 100k+ downloads with countable-on-fingers to no reviews. Over 2 million users have installed at least one such app on their smartphone. One of these apps, “GPS Location Maps,” downloaded over 100,000 times, has no reviews on Google Play Store. Immediately after download, the app displays websites in WebViews, an advertisement, and changes its name from “GPS Location Maps” to “Settings.”
How to check the safety of an app
Here are a few things you can do before downloading the app on your phone:
- Check developers name
- Download apps by the original developer
- Check out reviews and rating
