[ad_1]
Google has made headlines in recent months, here and elsewhere, for its crackdown on malicious applications in its proprietary application market, as well as applications that transcend all lines of practice. Let's remember that by the end of April, Google had decided to ban one of the largest Android app developers (DO Global) from Google Play Store after several of its apps had been taken to share data with the Chinese Government, among other concerns.
Unfortunately, we must again report a similar turn. Researchers at mobile security company Lookout announced that 238 apps downloaded more than 440 million times from the Google Play Store contained the BeiTaAd plug-in. This is a source of adware that can seemingly make a mobile device almost unusable.
In the Lookout Report, Kristina Balaam, a security intelligence engineer, notes that the number of downloads makes this family of applications "unique in its prevalence and the level of obscuration used to mask the existence of the plug-in." You can read the full report here. He explains, among other things, that the BeiTaAd plug-in has been found hidden in the TouchPal emoji keyboard, with 237 other applications that have all been published by CooTek (based in China) (the report also identifying the applications in question).
After Lookout reported what it had found at Google, all apps would have been either removed from the Play Store or updated with new versions that did not contain the plug-in.
Once you have installed the apps, they seem to go from a few days to a day. From that point on, however, they would start displaying "off-the-shelf" ads that exactly match that name. Ads start appearing on your lock screen, for example, or triggering a random video, even when the phone is apparently asleep.
"Non-application ads are not particularly innovative, but the ones served by this plug-in make phones almost unusable," says Lookout. "Users said they were not able to answer calls or interact with other apps, due to the persistent and ubiquitous nature of the ads being displayed."
This obviously reminds us (as if we needed one) that the abuse of the Google app market remains a recurring problem, thanks to developers who continue to find ways to outsmart Google's ability to control his store.
Image Source: Alastair Grant / AP / Shutterstock
[ad_2]
Source link