SophosLab has discovered 15 more Android apps chock-full of viruses and you need to delete them immediately. Here's what they are
There are 15 more infected apps on the Google Play Store, and if you already have them installed, it won't be easy at all to remove them from your smartphone. All of these apps install adware on your device, which is a virus that bombards you with unwanted advertisements.
The discovery of the 15 infected apps on the Google Play Store was made by researchers at SophosLabs, who assume at least 1.3 million downloads in total for these apps. SophosLabs also discovered that these apps do everything to prevent us from deleting them, adopting quite sophisticated strategies to hide themselves after installation. However, with a little patience it is possible to detect them and remove them permanently. Luckily Google, alerted by the cybersecurity company's researchers, removed all 15 infected apps which, by the way, were already full of negative comments clearly stating that these apps do not work and do nothing but launch advertisements. Once again, Google was able to uncover them on its own.
How the infected apps work
All the apps discovered by SophosLabs have the sole purpose of displaying banners on our device, to cheat ad networks and cash in on advertisers and users. The anti-removal strategy is more devious: on first launch, the app displays a message saying "This app is not compatible with your device!", and then pretends to crash. Then it opens the Play Store to the Google page, making us think that the app with the problem is Maps itself. But it's just a ruse: the infected app hides its icon from the home screen and masks it in the list of installed apps. Subito dopo inizia a bombardarci di pubblicità.
Quali sono le app infette da rimuovere
Tra le 15 app da rimuovere scoperte da SophosLabs c’è un po’ di tutto, dai tool di photo editing ai lettori di QR Code. Ecco la lista completa:
- Flash on Calls and Messages
- Read QR Code
- Magic Image
- Generate Elves
- Savexpense
- QR Artifact
- Find your Phone
- Scavenger-Speed
- Auto Cut Out Pro
- Background Cut Out
- Photo Background
- Image Processing
- Background Cut Out
- Auto Cut Out
- Auto Cut Out 2019
Come rimuovere le app infette
SoprosLabs ha avvertito Google della presenza di queste app sul Play Store, e Google le ha prontamente rimosse. Chi però le ha già installate solitamente non riesce a rimuoverle, perché non le trova. In fact, the apps are hiding in the list of installed apps, under a false name and icon: some of them are called "Update", with the Android 10 icon, others are called "Back Up", "Time Zone Service" (with the same icon) or even "Google Play Store", with the official Google Store icon. If you find such apps on your smartphone, try uninstalling them: if they're legitimate official system apps, all you can do is disable them, while if they're infected apps, you can remove them altogether.