Sci & Tech
If You’re Using An Android Phone, Delete These Dangerous Apps
Android is one of the most popular mobile OS in the world. It boasts of being the most flexible and capable in features customization. However to attain this level of open sourcing, android has to forego a lot of security measures unlike its rival iOS.
Google desperately needs to curb the spread of Android malware. In September alone, researchers uncovered a total of 172 infected apps on the Playstore. Does Google play protect even work?
ESET researchers have now uncovered 42 apps containing adware, which they say have been downloaded more than 8 million times since they first debuted in July 2018.
You might want to check if you have installed any of these apps and uninstall immediately. These apps look normal but act sneakily. Once an unsuspecting user installs an adware-infected app, the app will serve full-screen ads on the device’s display at semi-random intervals.
In a detailed Blog of how the adware works, Lukas Stefanko, a researcher at ESET, explained: “This trick – posing as a part of a legitimate Google service – may help avoid scrutiny. Some detection mechanisms and sandboxes may whitelist such package names, in an effort to prevent wasting resources.”
Stefanko named 21 of the apps in question and detailed the package names of the other 21 in a blog post.
Below is a list of the 21 apps;
- Smart Gallery
- SaveInsta
- Minilite for Facebook
- Freed Radio FM Online
- Free Video Downloader
- Free Social Video Downloader
- File downloader
- Water drink Reminder
- Smart Notes for You
- DU Recorder
- Tank classic
- Heroes Jump
- Solucionario
- Ringtone Maker
- Video downloader
- Ringtone Maker Pro
- Basketball Perfect Shot
- Hike Top+
- MP4 video downloader
- Flat Music Player
- Free Top Video Downloader
Google has now removed these apps from the Google Play Store, after ESET reported the issue and you might want to do the same from your android devices.
Kenya Insights allows guest blogging, if you want to be published on Kenya’s most authoritative and accurate blog, have an expose, news TIPS, story angles, human interest stories, drop us an email on [email protected] or via Telegram
Both Sides Claim Victory After US, Iran Agree To 11th-Hour Truce
The Teflon Company: How Gulf Energy’s Insiders Built Billions on Kenya’s Fuel, and Walked Away Clean
Inside Details Of Sh78 Billion Fraud in KPC’s Mombasa-Nairobi Line 5 Pipeline Project That Has Continued To Bleed The Country
Details Of The Precise Rescue Of Elite US Troops From Iranian Territory
The Fuel Deal That Exposed Wandayi’s Lies As Pressure Mounts For His Resignation
Who Architected the Ksh 4.8 Billion Fuel Scandal? Two CSs Now Caught in the Storm
THE ZAKHEM-ECOBANK MACHINE: How Kenya’s Courts Were Weaponised to Drain a State Corporation of Over KES 78 Billion
Poison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals
Inside Nyayo House: The Kitchen Cartel That Demands Sh100,000 for a Stove
JSC Rot: “Why I Paid Over Sh4 Million for a High Court Slot” — Explosive Claims by ‘Incoming Judge’
Tuju Forcefully Removed From His Karen Property With Masked Officers In Unmarked Vehicles In Early Morning Raid
Named: Havi Says Mutava Confessed He Was Collecting The Bribe For Lady Justice Josephine Mongare, So Why Is JSC Still Silence?
How Little-Known Pesa Print, Linked to State House Tycoons, Won NTSA Tender Worth Sh42 Billion in Traffic Fines
The Man With The Golden Pen: How NLC’s Joel Ombati Is Accused Of Masterminding Kenya’s Biggest Infrastructure Land Heist
‘They Will Eat You Alive’: Retired Teacher Warns Against Bashy African Credit as Sh500,000 Loan Spirals Into Sh1.5 Million Fight
THE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
Forged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
Waweru’s Bank Pockets Sh1.16 Billion from KPC IPO While Ordinary Kenyans Fled the Sale
How Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
Men Linked to Akasha Drug Dynasty Charged With Death Threats and Assault at Nairobi Nightclub
-
Business2 weeks agoTHE HANDSHAKE THAT BECAME A NOOSE: How Tuju’s Alleged Intimate Access to EADB’s Yeda Apopo Produced a Sh294 Million Deal With No Written Contract, and Why That Trust Destroyed an Empire
-
Investigations1 week agoForged Legacy: How Kaplan and Stratton’s Peter Gachuhi Is Accused of Faking a Top AG’s Will as State Claims Damning Evidence
-
Business1 week agoHow Firm Linked To Mombasa Tycoon Jaffer Was Allowed To Import Fuel At Bloated Price And Set To Make Billions In Profits From Iranian War Crisis In Kenya
-
News2 weeks agoMen Linked to Akasha Drug Dynasty Charged With Death Threats and Assault at Nairobi Nightclub
-
News2 weeks agoCity Lawyer Kimani Wachira Caught Up In Bribery Web Fights Claims
-
Business7 days agoSold And Abandoned: How Diageo and Asahi Are Locking Kenya’s EABL Minority Shareholders Out Of East Africa’s Biggest Corporate Heist
-
News7 days agoTreasury Hands Sh358M Brief to Eric Gumbo’s Firm While Bypassing Standard Rules — and the Lawyer Is Already Deep Inside Ruto’s State Machine
-
Business5 days agoPoison at the Pump: How Kenya’s Fuel Marking System May Be Exposing Millions to Cancer-Causing Chemicals