Last month, researchers with Dr. Web discovered that a number of apps on the Google Play Store were riddled with malware, including banking Trojans, adware, spyware, and info stealers. The malicious apps claimed to be games, tools, camera plugins or other seemingly legitimate software.
Among the discovered malware samples was Android.Joker, a Trojan that would install a backdoor on the victim’s device, steal sensitive user data including financial information, and was also capable of secretly subscribing victims to premium mobile services. The researchers explained that in order to confirm such subscriptions, the malware would “hook verification codes from text messages.”
Read more: Gaming, photo apps in Google Play infect Android handsets with malware
