Another bad news has surfaced for Android users. Famous anti-virus company Avast has published a statement according to which, millions of Android phones around the world may be infected with dormant or active malware. This malware, according to Avast experts, hides in apps and may remain inactive for months before showing its real face.
The alert by Avast was issued in the form of a blog post by Fillip Chytry, who is a security expert at the company. He said that a few days ago, a complaint was lodged by an Android use which was not taken seriously. But upon taking a closer look, Chytry discovered that adware malware is hiding itself in apparently legitimate apps which are downloaded by millions of users around the world.
Some of these malware infected apps are Durak ( a famous card game downloaded more than 5 million times from the Google Play Store), IQ test and a history app.
According to the source, the mechanism through which this lethal malware works is pretty smart and deceives the users easily. The malware effected app works normally for more than 30 days. After a specific period of time, whenever the users unlocks the device, a pop-up ad will appear, warning the user about potential vulnerabilities in the device’s security. The worried user clicks the ad and that is when the damage begins. The malware gets active and retrieves the user data from contacts, messages and other sources.
The most bothering factor is that this adware might have effected numerous famous apps which users install and use daily. The source added that many apps are using adware for promotions, which is burgeoning the spread of this malware rapidly.
Google is yet to comment on this flabbergasting claim by Avast.
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"Flabbergasting claim"? This scenario sounds totally plausible to me. There are well over a million apps available on the Google Play store. It is unreasonable to think that none of them would be embedded with malicious code. I have been using my Android Gingerbread equipped phone for over 4 years. My Android KitKat equipped tablet is basically the same, just a prettier interface. The more I use Android, the more I dislike it. I have been running a security program on my phone and tablet from day 1, but still get prompted to download suspicious apps or get peculiar pop-ups in the browser. Some of the pop-ups do not permit the user to go back or cancel, requiring a total reboot to clear the prompt. As much as I dislike Apple, I am starting to think there may be an iPhone in my future.