If we look at the Android threats detected by ESET In the first quarter of this year, the spyware applications experienced higher growth compared to the previous quarter. In this we are going to delve a little more, although first we will comment on what we have been able to verify over the last few months.
Hundreds of apps with malware detected this year
If we look at the last few months, they are many viruses that have been locatedand we cannot even imagine the ones that may still be in the Play Store and the Internet that have not yet been detected and may be affecting many users.
We started the month of January with a hidden threat in play store that has affected the bank accounts of many people, called Dark Herring. Later, we warned about the Medusa virus. Many malicious apps have been detected in recent months, several with the Octo Banking virus or malware, with the BRATA virus, with Xenomorph, Malibot, ALIEN, Hermit, NetworkCallback, Autolycos and HiddenAds, among others.
Each of these malware was present in various apps downloaded by thousands of users and many more, which pose a great threat at the national and international level. If some are discovered, new ones appear.
And this is how we find each time that security firms discover new malicious apps and we inform you so that you do not download them and you can uninstall them from your phone if you have any of them.
Spyware, the fastest growing threat in 2022
The cyber threats on android They have increased slightly in the first quarter of 2022, although there are some threats whose growth is much more pronounced, such as spyware. Between the last quarter of last year and this reference quarter, threats with spyware increased by 170% according to the ESET Threat Report Q1 2022.
Adware and stalkerware decreased in the number of detections, while others such as fraudulent applications (27.7%), clickers (31.6%) and SMS Trojans (145.2%) increased. Banking malware must be mentioned, which grew by 13.9% after having fallen in the previous quarter, something very dangerous when it comes to money.
The spyware does not steal money directlybut get all the sensitive data that you can on affected smartphones and access features such as video and audio recordings on Android devices. The worst thing is that many of the users affected by this software that takes over our private data may still not be aware of the situation and that cybercriminals have taken over them, they may never find out and continue exposing themselves to important dangers.
Next, cybercriminals look for ways to make money from your personal or business data. Many users are not aware of this or when they will use their stolen data, which can end using years later without knowing exactly when the vulnerability occurred.
Lab52 researchers identified spyware that establishes full control over the device and its content if the permissions of the malicious app are accepted. This is one variant of the Android Trojan/ Spy.Agentwhich is one of the top 10 Android threats recorded in the first quarter of this year.
AppCensus researchers found several apps on the Play Store with malicious code to collect phone numbers, email addresses, and location data, some of them downloaded more than 10 million times.
Although Google does everything possible to combat them, it is clear that this is a year in which it is necessary to start, if it has not already been done, to protect our mobile devices and avoid the threats that are increasingly present on Android mobiles.