For months, more than 60,000 malicious apps could silently go about their business on Android, security researchers from Bitdefender. Specifically, these are apps that offer no functionality to users, and are only meant to distribute adware. The goal is to place ads on third party apps to make money.

Limited impact?

Therefore, malware often causes little concern for the end user. They themselves were relatively unaffected by it. Unlike some Android malware, adware does not provide users with accounts. Also, the crooks usually don’t care about user data. Bitdefender does warn that malicious parties may change their tactics; minor updates to apps can suddenly cause them to still collect sensitive data, spread ransomware, or lock you out of paying for subscriptions.

Combined with its wide distribution – adware is found in more than 60,000 unique applications – this problem demands a fast response. Action from Google is not expected soon, as the app is nowhere to be found in the Play Store. The fact that the app is not distributed through app stores makes alarm bells ring among researchers. Given the large number of applications involved, automatic distribution is likely.

Not visible on Android

Users who have installed the app on their phones see little of it. The app doesn’t show up in the launcher. Also, UTF-8 characters are used for the application name, so the application appears anonymously in the application list. Lastly, the app has no icon. How do you find them then? Scroll to the bottom of the list of apps on your smartphone. If there’s an app without an icon there, it’s probably an adware app.

Another indication of this is that you can’t start the app. Or, at least, when the app is launched after installation, the message “The app is not available in your area. Click OK to delete”. However, in reality, the application does not perform the process. All that happened was that the app went into standby for two hours; however, after those two hours, the adware was active again.

You may not recognize adware with certain types of applications. Criminals proliferate malware in the following types of applications:

• Crack for games
• Games with unlocked features
• Free VPNs
• Fake videos
• Netflix
• Fake tutorials
• YouTube/TikTok without ads
• Cracked versions of tools such as weather reports and PDF viewers
• security program

Europe is not the focus

European users shouldn’t worry too much, says Bitdefender. Most of the infections (55.27 percent) occurred in the US. South Korea (9.8) and Brazil (5.96 percent) were in second and third place, respectively. The UK is the most affected country in percentage terms in Europe.