As many as 16 malicious apps with over 20 million cumulative downloads have been taken down from the Google Play Retailer after they had been caught committing cell advert fraud.
The Clicker malware masqueraded as seemingly innocent utilities like cameras, foreign money/unit converters, QR code readers, note-taking apps, and dictionaries, amongst others, in a bid to trick customers into downloading them, cybersecurity agency McAfee mentioned.
The checklist of offending apps is as follows –
- Excessive-Velocity Digital camera (com.hantor.CozyCamera) – 10,000,000+ downloads
- Sensible Activity Supervisor (com.james.SmartTaskManager) – 5,000,000+ downloads
- Flashlight+ (kr.caramel.flash_plus) – 1,000,000+ downloads
- 달력메모장 (com.smh.memocalendar) – 1,000,000+ downloads
- Okay-Dictionary (com.joysoft.wordBook) – 1,000,000+ downloads
- BusanBus (com.kmshack.BusanBus) – 1,000,000+ downloads
- Flashlight+ (com.candlencom.candleprotest) – 500,000+ downloads
- Fast Observe (com.movinapp.quicknote) – 500,000+ downloads
- Forex Converter (com.smartwho.SmartCurrencyConverter) – 500,000+ downloads
- Joycode (com.joysoft.barcode) – 100,000+ downloads
- EzDica (com.joysoft.ezdica) – 100,000+ downloads
- Instagram Profile Downloader (com.schedulezero.instapp) – 100,000+ downloads
- Ez Notes (com.meek.tingboard) – 100,000+ downloads
- 손전등 (com.candlencom.flashlite) – 1,000+ downloads
- 계산기 (com.doubleline.calcul) – 100+ downloads
- Flashlight+ (com.dev.imagevault) – 100+ downloads
The Clicker app, as soon as put in and launched, unleashes its fraudulent performance that permits the malware to covertly go to bogus web sites and simulate advert clicks with out the victims’ information.
“This may occasionally trigger heavy community site visitors and eat energy with out consumer consciousness in the course of the time it generates revenue for the menace actor behind this malware,” McAfee researcher SangRyol Ryu mentioned.
To additional conceal its true motive, the app takes into consideration the app’s set up time such that the suspicious exercise would not kick in throughout the first one hour of downloading the app. It additionally incorporates a randomized delay in between to remain underneath the radar.
The findings arrive two months after McAfee found a dozen Android adware apps distributed on the Google Play Retailer, which harbored a malware pressure referred to as HiddenAds that had been discovered to execute routinely with none consumer interplay.
“Clicker malware targets illicit promoting income and might disrupt the cell promoting ecosystem,” Ryu mentioned. “Malicious habits is cleverly hidden from detection.”
