Recently, a team of researchers from Google, Akamai, CloudFlare, Flashpoint, RiskIQ and other security organizations detected that several delivery networks and content providers were experiencing DDoS attacks from more than 100 of applications.
Google Removes 300 Android Apps That Hacked Phones For DDoS Attacks
A team of researchers from Google, Akamai, CloudFlare, Flashpoint, RiskIQ and other organizations detected on August 17 that several delivery networks and content providers were experiencing DDoS attacks from a botnet called WireX.
This botnet was mainly made up of Android devices running malicious applications. After this discovery, the Mountain View company, of course, the tech giant Google eliminated about 300 malicious applications from the Google Play Store which were responsible for the hijacking of the Android devices.
The apps that the tech giant Google has deleted from its official app store, of course, Google Play store belong to categories of all kinds and offered various functions and services, such as video players, mobile ringtones, storage managers or even security tools.
At first, there was nothing to suspect that they were malicious pieces, but they contained malware for Android that infected mobile phones to turn them into zombie devices at the service of the botnet.
To do this, they took advantage of the features of the Android service architecture that allows applications to use system resources in the background and continued running while the smartphone was on, even with the screen locked. In this way, the infected Android devices were prepared to perpetrate WireX DDoS attacks even though the app was not in use.
According to the joint report that the researchers published, malicious applications requested a series of permissions to the user that they could put on notice that it contained malware. Among them, we find the option to modify the system settings or full access to the network, some permissions that a conventional app will never ask us.
After deleting malicious applications from the Play Store, the tech giant Google said in a statement that it is in the process of removing apps from affected devices as well. Some researchers point out that the figure that compromised mobile phones could exceed 70,000, distributed in more than 100 countries around the world.
So, what do you think about these malicious applications? Simply share your views and thoughts in the comment section below.
