Google removes Ztrog Trojans infected apps from its Google PlayStore

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Google these days is busy removing apps from its PlayStore which are infected by Ztrog Trojans. And as per our sources, the said malware induced by hackers has the potential to send premium rate texts without the knowledge of the phone user.

Thus, for the second time in this year, Google was forced to remove infected apps from its Android marketplace.

Technically, Ztrog Trojan gives hackers the ability to exploit the root administrator abilities of a smart device. Later it allows them to employ a number of nefarious techniques on the smartphone.

For instance, One app Magic Browser which appears to be an internet browser and Noise Detector app are some of the infected applications which are available in Android Marketplace. Both the said apps are available on Play store since 2016 and have been downloaded more than 50,000 times.

Roman Unuchek, a senior research analyst from Kaspersky was the one to alert the world about the said malware. He analyzed in his research that some apps on the play store were assisting cyber criminals with ‘clickjacking WAP billing’. Means these apps can not act as Trojans sending premium rate SMSes but also can open web pages with WAP billing to steal money from user accounts.

And what’s amazing about this malware is that it has the ability to turn the device sound OFF and delete all incoming SMS.

Mr. Unuchek has warned that the rooting malware can even stop the function of smartphones on a permanent note by overwriting system files and folders. He believes that the developers of the said malware are probably in the testing phase and so are testing the water with different malware variants.

Wonder, what will happen to the millions of users using Android phones when the final version of the malware is available?

Note- Mr. Unuchek also writes for the Kaspersky Blog with articles related to mobile security

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Naveen Goud is a writer at Cybersecurity Insiders covering topics such as Mergers & Acquisitions, Startups, Cyber Attacks, Cloud Security and Mobile Security

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