Late last month, anti-virus software giant Dr.Web discovered that there are as many as 101 apps in the Google Play Store that contain the “SpinOK” spyware module. According to the antivirus firm, SpinkOk uses minigames that result in daily rewards to pique user interest, which appears to be a permissible habit.
The apps, once downloaded, will take sensitive information from the user’s phone in the background and transfer it to a remote server. In recent years, this has been a major problem owing to the rampant growth of technology.
These very innocent-looking spyware-containing apps have been downloaded more than 420 million times, including several well-known and highly rated ones. Several of them even use minigames, incentives, and activities to entice users. Many of the harmful apps that have been identified have currently been removed. However, some are still accessible through the Google Play Store.
Malicious Apps on Google Play
Unfortunately, just a week later, the international media outlet “PhoneArena” revealed that the information security firm “CloudSek” discovered that as many as 193 apps had such issues, were downloaded 30 million times, and many of them are still available on the Google Play Store.
Some of the malicious apps on the discovered Google Play Store include Chip Winner 2048, iSecurity – Virus Cleaner, Quick Loan Pro, Calculator Lock – Photos, Vault, Pixel Battle, Hello VPN-Fast & Secure, Dong Bao, and Reader Tool, among others.
