ANDROID phone owners are being urged to stay on the look-out for dangerous apps.
A leading cyber-expert has revealed the key signs that you’ve got a “malicious” app on your smartphone.
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These criminal apps can cause chaos in your digital and real life.
If you install the wrong app, you could be spied on, defrauded, stolen from, blackmailed and more.
Now Kristina Balaam, Senior Threat Researcher of Threat Intelligence at Lookout, has highlight the “red flags” that an Android app may be unsafe.
You’ll need to keep a close eye on any apps you install – even from the Google Play Store – to make sure that you’re not in danger.
Android app warning sign #1
The first warning sign you need to look out for is when an Android app is making unusual requests.
“If an Android app asks for an extensive number of permissions, or for any that seem unnecessary for the task, it may be unsafe,” Kristina told The U.S. Sun.
“For instance, when a flashlight or wallpaper app requests access to device audio, camera, SMS messaging, or other intrusive and unreasonable permissions.
“We often see malicious applications disguise themselves as benign and collect as much information as they can.
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“Often people don’t assume that they’re being compromised so they make the mistake of clicking ‘OK’.”
Android app warning sign #2
The second sign is when an app exhibits strange behaviour after you’ve downloaded it.
“Another signal that the app may be malicious is when you install it, and suddenly it stops working or you’re no longer able to find it in your device,” Kristina warned.
“This likely means there’s something bad happening in the background.
“We see this a lot with surveillanceware where you’ll have an application that you’ll install, it will pretend to be something benign, and then once you’ve launched it, it removes the icon from the device without actually removing the application itself.
“This is often an indication that a bad actor is trying to collect information about you.”
Android app warning sign #3
The third and final warning sign to look out for is a seemingly innocent request – with very dark consequences.
“Be wary of applications that request ‘Accessibility Services’,” Kristina advised.
“This is a completely legitimate feature of the Android operating system that allows users with disabilities to interact with their device, but threat actors often abuse it because it allows them to be able to see everything you’re doing on your device.
“This allows them to, for example, try and monitor whether you’ve opened say a messaging application or a banking application.
“And then respond based on the events that they’re seeing passed to the malicious application.”
