More than 60 dangerous apps reportedly discovered on Google Play by McAfee

Antivirus software McAfee has reportedly identified over 60 apps infested with malicious bugs which are designed to steal sensitive user data.

Users downloading apps on their devices from Google Play need to exercise caution as McAfee’s Mobile Research Team has reportedly identified more than 60 apps that carry a harmful third-party library named Goldoson.

There supposedly have been over 100 million downloads of these malicious apps from the Google Play store and ONE store in South Korea.

The McAfee report further revealed that these dangerous apps can be deployed by criminals to obtain Wi-Fi history, active apps, devices connected via Bluetooth, and GPS locations in the vicinity. This enables criminals to surveil individuals by potentially obtaining precise user location data and tracking movements.

Furthermore, the above-mentioned library can lead to ad fraud by inconspicuously clicking on background advertisements without the user knowing. McAfee has intimated to Google that these harmful apps violate Google Play’s policies and requested remedial measures. As a matter of fact, a few apps were deleted from the Google Play store with others being rejigged by the developers themselves.

How dangerous are the apps?

The Goldoson library is designed to register devices and obtain remote configurations. Every app has a unique remote server domain and library name which are obscure.

But Indian users need not worry as there have been no reports of the bug infesting their devices. The bug has basically affected users from South Korea, as per reports. However, all Android users should be careful while downloading apps.

What you should do

Although the malicious bugs were created by criminals instead of the app developers, the users will be impacted, nevertheless. However, by updating the apps to the latest version, users can eliminate the malicious bugs from their devices.