{"id":6961,"date":"2018-12-21T09:10:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T09:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/datcomWP\/?p=6961"},"modified":"2018-12-21T09:10:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T09:10:00","slug":"infected-applications-removed-from-google-play-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/21\/infected-applications-removed-from-google-play-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Infected Applications Removed from Google Play Store"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>We all download apps. There are literally millions of apps to choose from and sometimes nefarious developers can get their application published with ulterior motives. A situation has just happened as Google has removed twenty-two apps that were found to contain automated click-fraud scripts from the Google Play Store. We\u2019ll take a short look at what these developers were up to, and how the fraudster would affect you if you were one of the two million users that happened to download these apps.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>What Apps?<\/strong><br \/>\nFirst, we\u2019ll start with a complete list of the apps that had been infested with this nefarious code:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sparkle FlashLight<\/li>\n<li>Snake Attack<\/li>\n<li>Math Solver<\/li>\n<li>ShapeSorter<\/li>\n<li>Tak A Trip<\/li>\n<li>Magnifeye<\/li>\n<li>Join Up<\/li>\n<li>Zombie Killer<\/li>\n<li>Space Rocket<\/li>\n<li>Neon Pong<\/li>\n<li>Just Flashlight<\/li>\n<li>Table Soccer<\/li>\n<li>Cliff Diver<\/li>\n<li>Box Stack<\/li>\n<li>Jelly Slice<\/li>\n<li>AK Blackjack<\/li>\n<li>Color Tiles<\/li>\n<li>Animal Match<\/li>\n<li>Roulette Mania<\/li>\n<li>HexaFall<\/li>\n<li>HexaBlocks<\/li>\n<li>PairZap<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What Did These Apps Do?<\/strong><br \/>\nSophosLabs found a cache of apps that feature what they call \u201cAndr\/Clickr-ad\u201d malware. These applications are engineered with maximum flexibility in mind. They could contact a common attacker-controller server to download what is called an ad-fraud module. It does this every 80 seconds. The malware simply opened a non-visible window and would repeatedly click on ads, making the network look like it was getting more traffic, fraudulently enhancing the developers\u2019 revenue.<\/p>\n<p>No specific ad network was specified by Sophos, but users who had downloaded these applications would see a decrease in the battery life and\/or an increase in the amount of data their device would use. One strange part of this is that some of the ad traffic was able to identify itself as from coming from iPhones, despite this appearing on Android-only apps. They came from \u201cApple models ranging from iPhone 5 to 8 Plus and from 249 different forged models from 33 distinct brands of Android phones.\u201d This ploy was used as a way to increase revenues further as some advertisers will pay a premium to get their ads onto Apple devices. iOS versions of the apps, largely by the same developers, didn\u2019t have the malicious code integrated.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Download Legit Apps<\/strong><br \/>\nHow can you go about making sure that you aren\u2019t part of this problem? Download legitimate applications. Some of the best ways to make sure the apps you are downloading are legit, include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Read a lot of reviews<\/strong> &#8211; Much of the information you will need to see the legitimacy of an application can be found in the review of the app in the store. If you make a point to read eight or more reviews, you will quickly get a good idea about how functional the application is.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check app permissions<\/strong> &#8211; Applications need permission from a user to use the core functions of the phone. If the application in question tends to need access to functions that it shouldn\u2019t, you should be skeptical about the application.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Check the terms and conditions<\/strong> &#8211; Most people don\u2019t go through the terms and conditions of anything, let alone an application for their smartphone. Even if you do make a point to read them, the amount of legalese found is akin to a lullaby or a warm glass of milk. The problem for users is that there is a lot of good information about the applications, and specifically how it uses data. If you do set aside some time to read about it, check out some language that is relevant to the way you use the application.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Research the developer<\/strong> &#8211; Nowadays, software development is filled with people that are looking to make a name for themselves. This type of ambition can lead to bad decision making. If you take some time to do some basic research about the developer of an app you have reason to question, you\u2019ll likely find the truth of whether they can be trusted or not. If they want to be known, they likely promote their work via social media, so, start there.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Android has millions of legitimate applications on the Google Play Store, so worrying whether or not you\u2019ve downloaded one that will put your data at risk shouldn\u2019t be too worrisome as long as you stick to our best practices. To learn more about technology, security, and mobile strategies, call COMPANYNAME today at PHONENUMBER.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We all download apps. There are literally millions of apps to choose from and sometimes nefarious developers can get their application published with ulterior motives. A situation has just happened as Google has removed twenty-two apps that were found to contain automated click-fraud scripts from the Google Play Store. We\u2019ll take a short look at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[150,93,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.datcomllc.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}