Sometimes, protecting your smartphone from malware can be a complicated and worrying process. Luckily, avoiding a new string of adware targeted at Android users is as simple as being careful of where you download apps to your Android smartphone.
Consider three app download taboos.
1. Third-party app stores
The adware campaign starts when the attacker uploads the malicious app to a third-party app store. Third-party app stores are notorious for being the source of many threats to Android smartphones’ security.
Google’s system of choosing apps for the official Google Play Store isn’t perfect, but it provides a level of protection that isn’t available elsewhere. If you’re looking to protect yourself, then the solution is simple: don’t download apps from third-party app stores.
When you first launch an infected app, it will collect information on your device and upload it to the ad server. From there, it serves ads from the background, and you will see several ads on your phone regardless of whatever activity you are completing on your phone. Victims have even reported seeing ads pop up when staying on the Android home screen doing nothing!
2. Download links on websites
While you might not be using a third-party app store, you could see an ad for a malicious app when you are surfing the web. What is misleading about the malicious apps is that they are repackaged with a name and icon you might trust, since they mimic safe Android apps that you may have already installed on another device.
What these malicious apps do is that once they have been installed, the apps exploit as many as eight different Android vulnerabilities to gain deep root access privileges. After that, the apps mimic legitimate Android services in order to gain a permanent hold on the infected phone.
The advice is not to download apps from locations other than the official Play Store.
3. In-app ads
Another way for the attacker to get people to download the malicious app is to promote the app via advertisements in other apps. While ads in your favorite game app may seem annoying, most users do not know that clicking on one of such ads can get them to an app that will increase the number of ads they see on their phones, and also use its root access to make other changes to the phone’s software.
Again, you shouldn’t download apps from ads, or from any sources other than Google. This is the summary of this article in one breath.
