Around 25 Android apps were removed from Google Play Store after cybersecurity firm Evina alerted Google that these apps were stealing Facebook login details of users. The apps came with a malware which kept a record of your Facebook login details when you used them on your phone. These 25 apps had a total of over 2 million downloads and mostly offered services like file managers, flashlights, wallpaper management, screenshot editor, and weather. Here is the list of those 25 apps as per cybersecurity firm Evina, and it is highly recommended that you delete from your phone.
However, once installed the hidden code embedded within the app then sets about stealing personal data via some nasty tactics. With the malicious code automatically activated it then lies in wait until the Android phone user launches Facebook.
It then has the ability to mimic the popular social media site and overlay a web browser window on top of the official Facebook app.
This well-produced fake login page is almost impossible to spot and users are easily tricked into entering their user names and password which is sent to hackers to use at a later date.
Speaking about the attack, Lionel Ferri, Evina CTO: “It’s a fraudulent technique that points out the danger and reflects how important it is to protect yourself. It can not be identified by Facebook as the malware displays in front of the legit app when it is launched”.
Evina says it found the malicious code in 25 apps which were instantly deleted once reported to Google at the end of May.
Google says it removed the apps after verifying the French security firm’s findings. However, although that’s good news it appears that some of the applications had actually been available to download for over a year and had amassed some 2.3million installs.
If you think you may have downloaded one of the apps listed above then it’s a good idea to delete it from your phone immediately and change your Facebook password.
Here’s a full list of the apps that Google has removed. While that means these apps are no longer available to download from the Play Store, you will need to ditch them from your smartphone yourself.
- Super Wallpapers Flashlight
- Padenatef
- Wallpaper Level
- Contour Level wallpaper
- iPlayer & iWallpaper
- Video Maker
- Color Wallpapers
- Pedometer
- Powerful Flashlight
- Super Bright Flashlight
- Super Flashlight
- Solitare Game
- Accurate scanning of QR code
- Classic card game
- Junk file cleaning
- Synthetic Z
- File Manager
- Composite Z
- Screenshot Capture
- Daily Horoscope Wallpapers
- Wuxia Reader
- Plus Weather
- Anime Live Wallpaper
- iHealth Step Counter
- com.tqyapp.fiction
