McAfee, which produces security software, found 16 malicious applications downloaded more than 20 million times in total on Google Play and published a new report on this situation.According to experts, the apps are infected with the Clicker Trojan, which opens links sent to it in the background and generates revenue for attackers by imitating clicks on ads without the user’s knowledge. This also leads to increased consumption of internet traffic and the rapid depletion of the smartphone’s battery.
They were hosting Clicker malware
McAfee said the malware disguised itself as a useful application. Clicker can infiltrate an Android device as a flashlight, dictionary or calendar. Smart Task Manager, one of these seemingly harmless applications, has been downloaded more than 5 million times.
Experts relayed information about the threats to Google, and the company immediately removed these apps from the store – even though they had been downloaded 20 million times. Earlier this week, Kaspersky Lab experts uncovered malicious Android WhatsApp clients. It was announced that some modifications of the messaging application contain a trojan that steals access information about user accounts.
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