There’s another hugely concerning issue for Android users and now is a good time to give your smartphone a thorough check. Google has just banned a hugely popular app from its Play Store after the discovery that it was able to record conversations, steal messages and even track where users were heading for the day without their permission.
The application, called iRecorder – Screen Recorder, is thought to have been downloaded some 50,000 times before it removed and that means plenty of people could be affected.
The issues were discovered by the security team at ESET with the company finding the app was capable of installing the AhMyth RAT bug onto devices.
So how did evade Google’s strict security in the first place? According to ESET, when it was first uploaded to the Play Store back in 2021 it was completely clean with cyber crooks then adding the dangerous payload at a later date.
Even those who had already installed it were still targeted with crooks releasing an update that was then pushed to out devices. App upgrades are a common feature on phones and it’s likely many tapped would have downloaded the patch without realising what it was capable of.
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“Android users who had installed an earlier version of iRecorder (prior to version 1.3.8), which lacked any malicious features, would have unknowingly exposed their devices to AhRat, if they subsequently updated the app either manually or automatically, even without granting any further app permission approval,” ESET explained.
” The AhRat research serves as a good example of how an initially legitimate application can transform into a malicious one, even after many months, spying on its users and compromising their privacy.”
If you think you are one of the unlucky ones who may have installed the software now is a good time to check your device and delete it.
The longer that it stays loaded on the phone, the more chance you have of becoming its next victim.
” As a Google App Defense Alliance partner, ESET identified the most recent version of the application as malicious and promptly shared its findings with Google,” the ESET team explained.
“Following our alert, the app was removed from the store”
How to delete apps that you installed
• Open the Google Play Store app.
• At the top right, tap the profile icon.
• Tap Manage apps and devices. Manage.
• Tap the name of the app that you want to delete.
• Tap Uninstall.
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