Google through periodical monitoring of its Play Store has come across 17 new malware-infected apps that are a threat to Andriod phones.
All these apps have been infected by the Joker malware and have now been removed from the Google Play Store confirmed Zscaler ThreatLabZ, a cybersecurity firm based in California.
"Our Zscaler ThreatLabZ research team has been constantly monitoring the Joker malware. Recently, we have seen regular uploads of it onto the Google Play store. Once notified by us, the Google Android Security team took prompt action to remove the suspicious apps from the Google Play store," the cybersecurity firm wrote in a blog.
The blog further read, "This prompted us to evaluate how Joker is so successful at getting around the Google Play vetting process. We identified 17 different samples regularly uploaded to Google Play in September 2020. There were a total of around 120,000 downloads for the identified malicious apps."
Joker is not a new malware but lately, it has been causing headaches for Android app developers due to its little codes that are extremely hard to detect.
This malware uses a technique called ‘Dropper’ to breach Google’s security scan and sneak into the user’s device.
Here is the list of the infected apps that have been booted out by Google from Play Store
All Good PDF Scanner
Mint Leaf Message-Your Private Message
Unique Keyboard - Fancy Fonts & Free Emoticons
Tangram App Lock
Direct Messenger
Private SMS
One Sentence Translator - Multifunctional Translator
Style Photo Collage
Meticulous Scanner
Desire Translate
Talent Photo Editor - Blur focus
Care Message
Part Message
Paper Doc Scanner
Blue Scanner
Hummingbird PDF Converter - Photo to PDF
All Good PDF Scanner
It is advisable that these apps are deleted from your phones as soon as possible.
In July, 11 apps on the Play Store were infected, followed by 6 more apps in the first half of September. Now, 17 more apps have been infected by the Joker malware and pulled off the app store.
