Popular Google Play apps infected with malware, says Avast
Android users have been warned to be on the lookout for suspicious pop-ups on their devices after several popular apps on the Google Play store were found to contain malicious coding.
Durak - One of the apps carrying the malware
Apps including card game ‘Durak’ which has reportedly been downloaded a total of 10 million times, ‘IQ Test’ (five million downloads) and ‘History app’ (50,000 downloads) were found to contain malicious coding.
The adware reportedly lies dormant in the system for a month before activating deceptive pop-ups claiming the device’s software is out of date.
Filip Chytrý, a mobile malware analyst and operator at Avast, said: “Each time you unlock your device an ad is presented to you, warning you about a problem, This, of course, is a complete lie... you get re-directed to harmful threats on fake pages, like dubious app stores and apps that attempt to send premium SMS behind your back or to apps that simply collect too much of your data for comfort while offering you no additional value.
“An even bigger surprise was that users were sometimes directed to security apps on Google Play. These security apps are, of course, harmless, but would security providers really want to promote their apps via adware?”
Google has removed the apps in question from the Google Play store.
This malware outbreak will be a blow for the Google Play store which in 2014 generated 70 per cent less revenue than the Apple store despite seeing a total of 60 per cent more downloads.