Aggressive Android adware found on Google Play
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 02/26/2015 09:27 AM
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Google play is turning out to not be the safe place for downloads.
Today Bitdefender reports that it has found ten Google Play apps that are packed with aggressive adware that can do all sorts of nasty things.
Bitdefender security researcher Liviu Arsene said: "If someone figures out that one of these apps is responsible for all the browser redirects and scareware messages, he’ll have a hard time finding and uninstalling the app in the Application Manager menu as it hides under the vague new name and not, for instance, 'What is my ip?' Less tech-savvy users will be thrown off the scent and the app will remain installed and running indefinitely."
These apps are probably getting past Google "because the URL used to redirect users doesn’t actually disseminate malicious .apk files. Its purpose is to redirect browsers -- Android’s native browser, Chrome, Firefox, Facebook or even TinyBrowser -- to a specially created URL that tosses users around from one ad-displaying website to another".
Today Bitdefender reports that it has found ten Google Play apps that are packed with aggressive adware that can do all sorts of nasty things.
Bitdefender security researcher Liviu Arsene said: "If someone figures out that one of these apps is responsible for all the browser redirects and scareware messages, he’ll have a hard time finding and uninstalling the app in the Application Manager menu as it hides under the vague new name and not, for instance, 'What is my ip?' Less tech-savvy users will be thrown off the scent and the app will remain installed and running indefinitely."
These apps are probably getting past Google "because the URL used to redirect users doesn’t actually disseminate malicious .apk files. Its purpose is to redirect browsers -- Android’s native browser, Chrome, Firefox, Facebook or even TinyBrowser -- to a specially created URL that tosses users around from one ad-displaying website to another".
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