Millions of mobile phone users are being urged to delete certain apps from their smartphones. Android phones are being targeted and security experts have stepped in to put a ban on 36 popular apps.
The ban, which has been issued by Google, follows the discovery of a new threat to Android phones spotted by the team at McAfee Mobile Security. According to the experts the attacks are able to infect popular applications with a malicious software library and begin performing tasks without the smartphone owners' consent.
Reported by the Mirror, the publication says that once a contaminated app has been installed, it can be used by criminals to see Wi-Fi history, which apps are being used, what Bluetooth devices are connected to a phone, and even look at nearby GPS locations. Worse still, Android owners might actually be making hackers money without ever knowing as the bug is able to perform ad fraud by clicking on rogue advertisements in the background.
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McAfee has been reported as confirming: "The research team has found more than 60 applications containing this third-party malicious library, with more than 100 million downloads,"
The Research Team has already informed Google of the issue with the US technology giant telling developers to fix their apps or see them banned from its app store. Whilst some have co-operated at speed, it seems over 30 have now been blocked as the apps were still found to contain the malicious software library.
SangRyol Ryu for McAfee said: "We reported the discovered apps to Google, which took prompt action. Google has reportedly notified the developers that their apps are in violation of Google Play policies and fixes are needed to reach compliance. Some apps were removed from Google Play while others were updated by the official developers."
YOU CAN SEE THE FULL LIST OF APPS HERE
At the moment there are no reports of UK users being hit by the bug with the issue mainly targeted at users in South Korea. However, the Mirror's technology editor advises that it is still a reminder to all Android users to take care before installing new apps onto their devices. Always check the reviews, make sure you trust the developer and if you notice your phone's behaviour change after an installation it might be worth considering hitting the delete button.
It's also a bad idea to download applications from third-party providers as this software often doesn't go through the same rigorous checks made by Google's Play Store.
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