Google has removed six anti virus apps from the Play Store. Because these apps used to steal people’s bank details. These apps have been downloaded 15,000 times from the Play Store so far. All of them provided antivirus facility for smartphones and used to steal personal information when many websites and services were opened. These apps were mostly used in Italy and the United Kingdom.
According to a blog post by Check Point Research, six Android applications on the Google Play store pretending to be genuine antivirus apps were identified as “droppers” for the Sharkbot malware. Sharkbot is an Android steer used to infect devices and steal login credentials and bank details information from any users. On the other hand, after the dropper application, once it is installed, it can be used to infect the user’s device.
Keeps full surveillance on apps users
The team at Check Point Research states that the Sharkbot malware was created for users in China, India, Romania, Russia, Ukraine or Belarus and is also used by people. The malware of these apps used to find out when the users were using their phones and what activities they were doing.
It also used to track the location of the users along with the audio record.
Research has revealed that six apps have been identified from three developer accounts. In which are Zbynek Adamcik, Adelmio Pagnotto and Bingo Like Inc. Even after removing from playstore, these apps are still available with third parties in the market.
Totally 6 apps removed
Four malicious apps were discovered on February 25 and reported to Google on March 3. The applications were removed from the Play Store on March 9. Meanwhile, two more Sharkbot dropper apps were discovered on March 15 and March 22 – both of which were reportedly removed on March 27.
what should be done
People should read its policy and term carefully while downloading apps from play store or anywhere. Always trust only those apps or software, which have reliability. Apart from this, if you find any app wrong, then you can also report it to Google.