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.
