Adware hiding app icons causes 15 apps to be removed from the Play Store

Kamran

5 years ago

Internet security has been strengthened every day and at the same time, attackers are becoming more refined in their methods to steal data from lay users or even take actions that amplify the vulnerability of the smartphone to affect usage, forcing formatting that directly affects those who do not have the knowledge to back up files.

Adware has recently been found that hides the icons of the apps in which it is present so that the uninstall process is virtually found in some Android apps on the Play Store, showing that Google needs to tighten security analysis. of the apps hosted on your platform.

The discovery was made by Sophos, which is security hardware and software developer, and is a leader in this industry and has technical data so there is no doubt about the procedures adopted to analyze the existence of these silent infectors.

Basically Adware acted as follows: At the time the app was running, a large ad was displayed on the mobile screen, where the appearance is almost continuous while the app is being used. After a certain period of time, the icon for this program disappears from the menu tray or shortcut installed on the homepage, causing the user to think that it has been uninstalled.

According to the Play Market pages reviewed by Sophos, apps present on over 1.3 million devices around the world have this Adware installed. Despite the immediate removal, the company does not guarantee that the problem has been 100% resolved, making the verification constant.

“While these apps have been removed from the Google Play Store, there may be others we haven’t discovered yet, and they are doing the same thing,” Sphos said in its report.

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Important Tips

If any app disappears from the menu and you want to uninstall, just go to Settings> Apps & Notifications. This option will show all programs installed on the phone, whether via Play Store or third parties, where those that were recently used appear at the top.

If any of these apps have a different icon or name than what you were using, simply click on it and select the “Force Stop” option, and then “Uninstall”. Thus, the smartphone is less prone to future intrusions and even any kind of problem that could be caused on the phone, such as excessive battery consumption, is no longer happening.

To prevent malicious apps from being installed on your smartphone, you need to keep an eye on the reviews posted on the Play Store to see if it’s worth it or not.