60,000+ Android Apps Present Risk to User Privacy Through Adware Infestation
Over the last half-year, Bitdefender, a cybersecurity research team, has identified over 60,000 Android applications that contain adware, which poses a considerable danger to users.
Adware refers to software that is often bundled with programs such as mobile apps. Its purpose is to generate revenue for malicious actors by displaying advertisements either in the foreground or in the background of the user’s smartphone. Unfortunately, this not only causes you to lose money, it drains your device’s battery and causes it to overheat as well.
Interestingly, these malicious apps were not found on the official Google Play Store, but on third-party app store websites accessible via Google search. These rogue apps mimicked popular apps available on the Play Store, such as Netflix, YouTube/TikTok without ads, free VPNs, and fake security software.
When users clicked on a third-party website in a Google search, they were redirected to a misleading advertising page disguised as a genuine download of the desired app. However, instead of getting the intended app, adware was unknowingly installed on their device. When the application is opened, an error message appears, offering the option to uninstall. Unfortunately, even after users chose the uninstall option, the adware remained in the background of their phones.
Bitdefender, the cybersecurity company responsible for exposing this threat, claims that their new application anomaly technology helped detect malware. Without their innovation, this insidious adware would likely have gone unnoticed. The malware itself had been active since at least October 2022.
ExtremeTech reports that about 55% of the affected apps were targeted at users in the United States, indicating a significant impact on American smartphone users. However, Bitdefender’s findings also highlighted a significant number of infected apps targeting users in South Korea, Brazil and Germany.
The presence of adware in such a large number of Android applications raises serious concerns about user privacy and device security. It emphasizes the importance of getting apps exclusively from trusted sources, such as the official Google Play store, to reduce the risk of encountering malware. Users are encouraged to remain vigilant and take appropriate measures to protect their devices from adware and other potential threats.
