Dr. Web researchers discovered a half-dozen mobile applications in Google's Play Store that are really distributing information stealers apps with over two million downloads between them.
The researchers discovered five malicious apps, including PIP Pic Camera Photo Editor, a rogue program that pretends to be image-editing software and has over a million downloads. It takes people's Facebook credentials in fact, according to Tech Radar.
Apps Available in Google Play Store May Steal Personal Data
These applications were still available for download on the Play Store at the time of publication, and based on the reviews on the app repository, users aren't thrilled with them.
Aside from these five apps, the researchers discovered four others that are no longer available to the general public, including a racing game, an app that promises free access to Only Fans, a fake state compensation app for the Russian-speaking community, and a fake state compensation app for the Russian-speaking community.
These applications have been downloaded tens of thousands of times, proving that such deceptive tactics are still successful in obtaining personal information from many unknowing victims. However, some of the applications are still accessible for download on the Play Store, awaiting Google's recognition of their dangerous nature and removal, as per Gizchina.
Also included below is a list of potentially harmful Android apps that were discovered by SecneurX but never made it into the Play Store. As a result, the number of people affected is substantially less, given that they must be downloaded from external sources to be installed:
- Fast PDF Scanner
- Air Balloon Wallpaper
- Thug Photo Editor
- Anime Wallpaper
- Peace SMS
- Happy Photo Collage
- Original Messenger
- Pellet Messages
- Colorful Messenger
- Smart Keyboard
- Special Photo Editor
- 4K Wallpapers
DOJ Moves To Eradicate Malware
Officials believe the trend indicates a greater embrace of tough and imaginative measures for tackling a spike in cyberattacks. The Justice Department is increasingly requesting and gaining authorization to surreptitiously reach into Americans' computers to eradicate malware.
Botnets, which are armies of hijacked computers that are used to fuel anything from email spam campaigns to denial-of-service assaults that knock down websites, are a huge danger to internet security. Over the last year, federal prosecutors and FBI agents have stepped up their efforts to combat botnets and malware outbreaks by uninstalling bad programs from infected computers without the knowledge or consent of their owners.
Per Politico via MSN, in an interview at the RSA cybersecurity conference in San Francisco, Adam Hickey, a deputy assistant attorney general for national security, stated, "We have become more comfortable as a government taking that step."
In April, US officials deleted malware from hacked computers used to run a Russian intelligence agency's botnet, stopping the botnet's administrators from transmitting orders to the thousands of infected machines.
The Justice Department used an even more extensive version of the same technology a year ago to send orders to hundreds of machines throughout the country running Microsoft's Exchange email program, eradicating spyware placed by Chinese government agents and other hackers.
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