Google deletes 22 apps containing virus, you too delete them if you have

December 8: In a recent move, search giant Google has removed 22 Apps from its Play Store which contains hidden virus. Google removed the apps after security researcher Sophos found that these apps are being used for ad fraud by hackers. Collectively these 22 apps were downloaded by over 2 million times before they were deleted. Google has further asked the users to see and ensure that these 22 malicious apps are immediately deleted from your smartphones. 

Sophos, a cyber security company that makes security apps wrote a blog post about it. Sophos in its blog post explained the harm these apps can cause to people’s phones. “From the user’s perspective, these apps drain their phone’s battery and may cause data overages as the apps are constantly running and communicating with servers in the background. Furthermore, the devices are fully controlled by the C2 server and can potentially install any malicious modules upon the instructions of the server.” In other words, you should not have these 22 apps on your phone. After Sophos reported the malicious apps to Google, the company removed them from the Play store.

Here’s the entire list of 22 apps. Read and immediately delete the ones that you have on your smartphone from the list.

• Sparkle Flash Light
• Snake Attack
• Math Solver
• Shape Sorter
• Tak A Trip
• Magnifeye
• Join Up
• Zombie Killer
• Space Rocket
• Neon Pong
• Just Flashlight
• Table Soccer
• Cliff Diver
• Box Stack
• Jelly Slice
• AK Blackjack
• Color Tiles
• Animal Match
• Roulette Mania
• HexaFall
• HexaBlocks
• PairZap