A little girl from Prague helped Google to remove scam apps making around Rs 3.7 crore by targeting kids. Read on to know more…
They say that sometimes girls can save the world. Well, in the cyber security world, this is literally true.
A little girl from Prague, Czech Republic, has helped security researchers to find and flag seven scam apps on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store with a total download of over 2.4 million. As per SensorTower, the creators of these malicious apps earned more than $500,000 or over Rs 3.7 crore. These malicious apps were typical adware scams which appeared as entertainment, wallpaper or music apps.
Spreading of Malicious Apps
These malicious apps was unleashed by its creators on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms and mostly targeted kids. These malicious apps stealth features mostly managed to hide itself and it was only after a little girl reported a TikTok profile promoting one of these apps to Avast’s Be Safe Online project in the Czech Republic — everyone knew about this malicious apps. This specific project of Avast’s educated children on how to stay safe online.
Working Mechanism
The moment these malicious apps were installed on a device, these used to hide their icons making it difficult for users to spot and uninstall them. Also, these apps forcefully showed ads when they were not used.
It was reported by Avast that the malicious apps aggressively display ads, or charge users between $2 to 10 USD to remove them. The apps either provide a simple game that just causes the device to vibrate, wallpapers, or music. Some of the malicious apps are reported as HiddenAds trojans, a type of trojan Avast reported on this summer that disguises itself as a safe and useful application but instead serves intrusive ads outside of the app, and hides the original app icon making it difficult for users to identify where the ads are being served from.
Status Report
After the security researchers was alerted, they informed Google and Apple privately. As of now, while Google has confirmed that these apps were removed, Apple has not responded yet.
Users with millions of followers on TikTok, Instagram and other social media platforms promote these adware luring people to install them. The researchers also found out several profiles with millions of followers promoting these apps.
Jakub Vávra, threat analyst at Avast said that “We thank the young girl who reported the TikTok profile to us…It is particularly concerning that the apps are being promoted on social media platforms popular among younger kids, who may not recognize some of the red flags surrounding the apps and therefore may fall for them,”