Do you own an Android phone?
Have you been getting mysterious bills like premium SMSes you’ve never signed up for? Or unexplained Google Play Store purchases you’ve never made?
Well, this might be the cause of all your woes:
Joker ‘Malware’ Found To Have Been Downloaded 50,000 Times By S’pore Android Phones
No one wants to get a surprise bill full of purchases you don’t recognise.
If you have kids or annoying siblings, you might’ve thought that they were the culprits making these sneaky purchases, but you couldn’t be more wrong.
A malware that targets Android mobile phones users on Google Play Store has been installed a whopping more than three million times since July 2019.
But if you think that Singapore can’t be affected since we’re so safe and all. Nope.
At least 50,000 of these apps have been installed on Google Play Store in Singapore.
It gets worse.
The malware impacts a large variety of apps that range from gaming to messaging and antivirus app, so really, no one is safe. Unless you use an Apple phone, that is.
How Does It Work?
What is this sorcery and how does it work?
It’s pretty simple really.
The Joker Malware steals your one-time passwords from your SMS messages and signs you up for premium SMS services and makes purchases for you on the Google Play Store.
The scary thing is that victims don’t realise that the transaction has been made until they see their credit card or phone bills. This means that the damage has already been done.
Wait, can we get a refund, please?
Who Discovered It?
A French cybersecurity firm called EVINA was the one to reveal that there were more than three million installations of the infected apps to mobile phones.
The largest number of installations of apps with malware was installed in China (500,000) followed by Japan and Indonesia (120,000 each) and Thailand (80,000).
It’s not like no one is trying to resolve the issue, but still, five in 10 affected apps just keep popping up again and again despite Google desperately trying to remove them from the Google Playstore.
What a crisis.
In total, around 400 different apps have been affected since July 2019.
Google Play Protect, the security and safety checks for apps before installation is rendered useless too because the malware is downloaded after the installation and only once you have launched the app.
This allows the malware to bypass security checks.
The risk of downloading a malware-laced app is also far higher for those who tend to download apps from outside of the Google Play Store.
How To Safeguard Yourself
- Only download apps from trusted sources like known developers in the App Store.
- Regularly update the Operating System of your devices.
- Be wary when apps request for permission for unnecessary things, like camera function or even your contacts.
- Victims must delete the affected apps and check your credit card and phone bills for unexplained subscriptions and purchases.
- You can also contact your telco to ban future subscription to premium or paid content.
Remember, stay safe everyone!
