16 new malicious applications have been detected with more than 20 million accumulated downloads that have been removed from the Play Store. It has been found that under the guise of harmless camera utilities, converters, note-taking apps, dictionaries, QR code readers and other uses, other malicious purposes are actually hidden.
They were discovered by McAfee for mobile advertising fraud, and under a use that would be attractive to you, what they wanted was to trick Android users into downloading them.
Although they are not in the app store right now, it doesn’t hurt to check them to see if you haven’t installed any. They may be affecting your mobile without you knowing.
How can these applications harm your mobile?
Behind these apps is the Clicker malware , which once installed and launched unleashes a new feature that allows you to covertly visit fake websites and simulate clicks on ads without the consent of its victims.
This can make network traffic heavier and consume power without you knowing what’s going on. While cybercriminals make money with it, your battery lasts much less and consumes data from your Internet connection.
Your phone can overheat and start to cause problems due to the use that is being given to it without you knowing and without you being able to do anything to avoid it unless you find out what is happening.
To hide its intentions , once you have installed it, the suspicious activity is not carried out until an hour after its download. Thus, although you may see something suspicious over time, you will not associate it with the application because they know how to hide their malicious behavior very well.
These are the 16 malicious apps you should avoid
Now that you know how they work and how they can affect your mobile, you should check that you don’t have any installed, so we give you the complete list with the 16 malicious applications, although there could be some more that have not been discovered yet.
With more than a million downloads each, a really high figure for a malicious app, we find High-Speed Camera, Smart Task Manager, Flashlight+, 달력메모장., K-Dictionary and BusanBus. Many other apps accumulate more than half a million downloads, more than 100,000, more than a thousand and lower but significant amounts due to the danger they pose to users who download them.
Without further ado, the apps that you should get rid of as soon as possible are these:
- High-Speed Camera (com.hantor.CozyCamera)
- Smart Task Manager (com.james.SmartTaskManager)
- Flashlight+ (kr.caramel.flash_plus)
- 달력메모장 (com.smh.memocalendar)
- K-Dictionary (com.joysoft.wordBook)
- BusanBus (com.kmshack.BusanBus)
- Flashlight+ (com.candlencom.candleprotest)
- Quick Note (com.movinapp.quicknote)
- Currency Converter (com.smartwho.SmartCurrencyConverter)
- Joycode (com.joysoft.barcode)
- EzDica (com.joysoft.ezdica)
- Instagram Profile Downloader (com.schedulezero.instapp)
- Ez Notes (com.meek.tingboard)
- 손전등 (com.candlencom.flashlite)
- 계산기 (com.doubleline.calcul)
- Flashlight+ (com.dev.imagevault)
If you have any of them, you should delete it from your mobile as soon as possible. Go to the list of applications, find it and hit delete.
It is interesting that you take the opportunity to install a good antivirus on your mobile and pay special attention every time you install a new app, checking if it has negative reviews or is suspicious because, although these have already been removed from the Play Store, there may be others that have managed to get around the security of the android store. Sounds like you’ve seen them?