If you are constantly concerned about the security and privacy of your data when using your mobile phone, we are afraid that today one of the other those days.
Additionally, the same cybersecurity software company caught “over 40 fake cryptocurrency miner apps” in the act when they (quite transparently) tried to steal people’s hard-earned cryptocurrency as well as various other types of sensitive information without any kind of user consent.
Here are just some of the apps you should uninstall ASAP
- Daily fitness OL
- Enjoy photo editor
- Panorama camera
- Photo Gaming Puzzle
- swarm photo
- Business Meta Manager
- Cryptomining Farm Your own coin
If that list feels just a little shorter than you’d expect it to contain over 240 titles, congratulations, your basic math skills are good. Just kidding, unfortunately, these are the only new apps that are explicitly mentioned and shamed by Trend Micro, which are basically offered as generic examples of titles that you should basically stay away from.
The good news is that all seven of these malware-carrying apps, as well as titles not listed in this report, were immediately kicked out of the Play Store once Google was made aware of their true intentions and data-stealing capabilities. †
The bad news is that this doesn’t solve the obvious privacy violation problem for all Android users who installed these apps prior to this disclosure. In addition to removing all the culprits in the above list that you can find on your phone, it’s probably a good idea to save your Facebook password and any other login information for other popular apps and services you may have stored on your device while using these apps. , change. pronto!
What should you pay attention to in the future?
Unfortunately, that’s not a foolproof solution to this particular scourge or similar security risks, such as: widespread Joker campaigns, as evidenced by Photo Gaming Puzzle and Swarm Photo’s solid 4.5 star average or Enjoy Photo Editor’s decent 4.1 score, a malicious app that managed to break the 100,000 installation barrier before exiting the Play Store.
It’s probably a good idea to stay away from sketchy or unpopular VPN, camera, and photo editing apps.
Of course, there are plenty of Android “photo editors” with even higher user rating scores and higher install numbers, and as much as you want to be “original” and defy trends, it’s generally safer to opt for mobile tools and services. . verified and praised by as many people as possible.
That is, if you want to keep your Facebook credentials a secret from malicious parties who can use them in all sorts of shady ways, including to try to break into other apps and services that share the same password to steal even more information and then sell it to the highest bidder.
As for fake cryptocurrency miner apps, our general advice is even easier to follow. You should never, never, never ever trust such a platform (especially one with an unverified and unverifiable track record) with even a dollar worth of crypto, otherwise you risk… losing everything in your wallet.