Study Reveals Over 300,000 People Have Installed Malware on Google Play Store Apps
Viruses, or malware, continue to pose a significant threat to users of any technological device with internet access. Criminals can easily access cameras, microphones, accounts, and other elements to invade your privacy. While installing an antivirus is common practice on computers, many users are still unaware of the existence of malware for mobile devices.
A recent study discovered that more than 300,000 people have installed a virus called ‘Xamalicious’ in applications available in the Google Play store. The malware, detected by antivirus company McAfee, accesses real-time information on the user’s device with the permissions granted to the app. The malware was used for different types of fraud, such as attracting adware to infected mobile phones without the user’s knowledge, reducing the device’s performance and capacity in the long term.
The investigation revealed that the first infected applications had been available in the official Google store since 2020. Thirteen apps were identified, and three of them had been installed more than 100,000 times each, mainly in Brazil, Argentina, the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico, and Colombia. Although Google Play has removed the applications from its catalog, they are still on the devices of the people who downloaded them, totaling 338,300 downloads.
The infected apps included popular titles such as 3D Skin Editor for PE Minecraft, Essential Horoscope for Android, and Logo Maker Pro. The study also identified other applications with varying installation numbers that were affected by the virus, all of which have been listed for users to verify on their devices.
It is crucial for users to delete any of the listed applications from their devices immediately to protect their privacy and security. However, it is important to note that there may be applications with similar names or functions that are not necessarily infected with a virus, so users are encouraged to carefully check the names before deletion.