Be careful what you pull down:
A new family of malicious apps, most of which were available on the Google Play Store, all containing malicious codes have been detected by a group of security researchers. The Godless apps are believed to be able secretly to root 90 percent of all Android phones.
AntiVirus provider, Trend Micro wrote in a recent blog post that they had discovered a new family of malicious apps. The apps called, Godless, contains a collection of the rooting exploits that can work on any device which is running the Android version 5.1 and below.
This means that close to 90 percent of Android devices are at risk of being affected. Members of the app group have been discovered in the various app stores, including Google Play, and as of now have been installed on approximately 850,000 of devices worldwide. Godless apps are known to have struck the hardest in India, Indonesia, and Thailand. In the US, less than 2 percent of affected people are present.
That is bad if you use the phone for banking, private messaging, and other sensitive activities. It could open up everything for perusal. Think twice before you pull down that highly rated flashlight app, because the ratings will have no idea what it is doing behind the scenes.
The amusing thing is rooting your phone is often difficult if you own the phone and want to do it for your own reasons. Yet you can download an App that will do it without you even knowing.
It is a different world today.
[…] Some Google Apps Root Your Phone […]
Everyday I read something like this that makes me glad I do not have a “a tracking device that happens to make calls.” nytimes.com/2012/07/15/sunday-review/thats-not-my-phone-its-my-tracker.html
It is true. Those things are dangerous.