14 DAY TRIAL // Trend Micro experts report that even though Google has removed a lot of apps from the Google Play site, there are still at least 17 malicious ones that either annoy users with advertisements, or they simply contain a dangerous piece of malware.
Out of the 17 applications, 10 have been found to use AirPush to serve ads, and 6 of them have been identified of containing the Plankton malware.
The last one they analyzed, apparently downloaded 100,000 times, doesn’t fall into the aforementioned categories. Instead, it’s a spy app that has been appointed as being malicious because of its potential for misuse.
The application that masks ANDROIDOS_PDASPY.A doesn’t hide its intent. It’s clearly developed to spy on the phones it’s installed on, recording messages, phone calls and even GPS locations.
In total, the 17 programs have been downloaded at least 700,000 times.