Did you know that there are some Android apps spying on their users? Now you know!
These malicious app which are available for download on Google Play store have been found out by a Mobile Security Company, Lookout. It was found that there are four apps available on the Google Play Store which secretly spy on users. Running a malicious code that Lookout has dubbed Overseer, the apps could track your whereabouts, collect information on who you were emailing, and when.
Kristy Edwards, Product Manager for Security Research at Lookout, said that
she can't speculate on who created the Overseer. And that the malicious software, which hasn't been identified in any other mobile apps so far, uses a novel technique to avoid detection. A useful tool for bad guys, because these days, companies are monitoring their employees' work phones for problems just like Overseer. Tricks like these make it hard to see "weird traffic".
One of the apps in Play store, called Embassy, advertised as letting users look up their nation's embassy in foreign cities. In which process, it turned users' phones into homing devices and sent out email contact lists to accounts hosted on Facebook and Amazon servers. The other apps advertised themselves as news apps but didn't actually work. Nonetheless, they also contained Overseer.
Google has since removed the apps from the Play Store, according to a Lookout spokesperson.
Beware what you download!
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