Google Removes Huge Apps From Play Store Over Adware
Google has removed 85 apps from its Play Store after security researchers at Trend Micro found a particularly annoying adware hiding inside.
“We found another example of adware’s potential real-life impact on Google Play. Trend Micro detects this as AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH. Apart from displaying advertisements that are difficult to close, it employs unique techniques to evade detection through user behaviour and time-based triggers,” Ecular Xu, mobile threat response engineer at Trend Micro, wrote in a blog post on Friday.
The latest wave of apps banned by Google happened to contain the latter. 85 adware-infested apps have been removed from the Google Play Store — the adware in question is known as “AndroidOS_Hidenad.HRXH,” according to Trend Micro. The site says this adware is particularly frustrating to deal with because it contains “unique techniques” that help it evade detection, while also displaying unskippable, difficult-to-close (full-screen) advertisements.
In most cases, the apps in question posed as games or photography apps. Their removal was triggered after Trend Micro security researchers sent the results of their recent adware investigation to Google.