Sophos Found 15 Malicious Apps That Can Hide Their Icons From Users

Once again, Play Store, as well as more than 1.3M smart devices, have been targeted by a group of Android apps that enable adware. A security company from England called Sophos has found 15 of such apps on the Play Store. They are capable of covering their icons from the app launcher/drawer.

These 15 vicious apps are Savexpense, Auto Cut Out, Background Cut Out, Find your Phone, Auto Cut Out 2019, Photo Background, Flash on Calls & Msg, ImageProcessing, Background Cut Out, Scavenger Speed, QR Artifact, Image Magic, Photo Background, Generate Elves, and Auto Cut Out Pro. Immediately uninstall these apps if you have any of them on your Android devices.

Users can’t see these apps in the app drawer. As a result, you need to go to Settings and find the Apps and Notifications page. Then, look for the app in the list and choose to uninstall it.

Some malicious apps on the list are not only able to cover their icons but also able to disguise themselves more mischievously in Settings. According to Sophos, these apps have a completely new icon and name for their Main Activity. Therefore, it is much more complicated to identify these apps. Almost every app is covered in negative reviews, which is a sure sign to avoid using them, even when they are harmful or not. Nevertheless, several users commented about shady tactics as well as intrusive ads.

To prevent the possibility of installing malicious apps, users should only download from well-known and recognized apps developers. Besides, remember to check the reviews section before hitting Install when the app is new.

As there are more and more malicious apps trying to show themselves on the Play Store, one crucial concern is the efforts of these apps to hide from users.  These apps disappear from view, but actually, it is still running, hiding under a system name. As a result, it is difficult to spot and eliminate them without effort.