Google bans 32 malware-infected apps from Play Store; Delete them
In mid of July and September, Google removed 32 apps from the Google Play Store for being infected by the Joker malware. Over the last few months, Joker is infecting apps across the Play Store.
Google is removing these apps from the store the moment they get to know about them being affected. Joker is not a new malware; it is a malicious one that has been categorised as fleece are. Initially, in July, Joker infected 11 apps on the Play Store, followed by 6 more apps in the mid of September. Now, 16 more apps have been infected and removed from the app store.
Tip for these 16 new apps came from a California-based IT Security Company called Zscaler. Zscaler examined the 16 apps and found out that they were infected with Joker. These 16 apps are said to have a total of 120,000 downloads.
These apps are no longer available for download as they have been removed from the Play Store. If you are using any of these, delete them right away.
Find the list of 34 apps which are affected:-
1. All Good PDF Scanner
2. Mint Leaf Message-Your Private Message
3. Unique Keyboard – Fancy Fonts & Free Emoticons
4. Tangram App Lock
5. Direct Messenger
6. Private SMS
7. One Sentence Translator – Multifunctional Translator
8. Style Photo Collage
9. Meticulous Scanner
10. Desire Translate
11. Talent Photo Editor – Blur focus
12. Care Message
13. Part Message
14. Paper Doc Scanner
15. Blue Scanner
16. Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF
17. com.imagecompress.android
18. com.relax.relaxation.androidsms
19. com.file.recovefiles
20. com.training.memorygame
21. Push Message- Texting & SMS
22. Fingertip GameBox
23. com.contact.withme.texts
24. com.cheery.message.sendsms (two different instances)
25. com.LPlocker.lockapps
26. Safety AppLock
27. Emoji Wallpaper
28. com.hmvoice.friendsms
29. com.peason.lovinglovemessage
30. com.remindme.alram
31. Convenient Scanner 2
32. Separate Doc Scanner
Earlier this year Google wrote in a blog that the Play Store has introduced new policies and have scaled up defences and Bread apps were forced to continually iterate to search for gaps and have used just about every cloaking and obfuscation technique possible to try and go undetected.
Google wrote, "Many of these samples appear to be designed specifically to attempt to slip into the Play Store undetected and are not seen elsewhere."