Criminals Distribute ‘Ad Virus’ in 60,000 Android Apps

About 60,000 Modded Android Apps Secretly Distribute Adware To The Devices They’re Installed Ongenerates revenue for operators. The malicious campaign was detected by Bitdefender, which detailed the discovery on Tuesday (6).

According to the experts of the cyber security company, malicious file designed to display ads was hidden in various types of apps distributed outside of the Google Play Store. Free VPN, supposedly unblocked versions of Netflix and YouTube, cracked games, fake antivirus and utilities are some of them.

After the user tries to run the APK, an error message pops up and gives the option to uninstall it, but it doesn’t – it starts running in the background and shows the ads in full screen and in the browser. In addition to making the device difficult to use, the application also provides profit for cybercriminals with forced advertisements.

Adware distribution action in Android apps started in October 2022 and may contain more APKs, According to the report. The difficulty of detecting it could have facilitated its spread, so there is a suspicion that “there’s a lot more out there,” as the company warned.

global distribution

This adware distribution campaign primarily targets Android users in the United States, where most affected devices are located. South Korea and Brazil also stand out in the ranking.as well as Germany, the United Kingdom and France.

Researchers stated The possibility of cybercriminals involved in the incident changing the type of malware in question, replacing the adware with banking trojans or ransomware cannot be ruled out., For example. Therefore, it is necessary to be careful when dealing with software from unknown sources, avoid downloading applications outside of the official Android store.