Google bans 32 malware-infected apps from Play Store; Delete them

In mid of July and September, Google removed 32 apps from the Google Play Store for being infected by the Joker malware. Over the last few months, Joker is infecting apps across the Play Store.

Google is removing these apps from the store the moment they get to know about them being affected. Joker is not a new malware; it is a malicious one that has been categorised as fleece are. Initially, in July, Joker infected 11 apps on the Play Store, followed by 6 more apps in the mid of September. Now, 16 more apps have been infected and removed from the app store.

Tip for these 16 new apps came from a California-based IT Security Company called Zscaler. Zscaler examined the 16 apps and found out that they were infected with Joker. These 16 apps are said to have a total of 120,000 downloads.

These apps are no longer available for download as they have been removed from the Play Store. If you are using any of these, delete them right away.

Find the list of 34 apps which are affected:-

1. All Good PDF Scanner

2. Mint Leaf Message-Your Private Message

3. Unique Keyboard – Fancy Fonts & Free Emoticons

4. Tangram App Lock

5. Direct Messenger

6. Private SMS

7. One Sentence Translator – Multifunctional Translator

8. Style Photo Collage

9. Meticulous Scanner

10. Desire Translate

11. Talent Photo Editor – Blur focus

12. Care Message

13. Part Message

14. Paper Doc Scanner

15. Blue Scanner

16. Hummingbird PDF Converter – Photo to PDF

17. com.imagecompress.android

18. com.relax.relaxation.androidsms

19. com.file.recovefiles

20. com.training.memorygame

21. Push Message- Texting & SMS

22. Fingertip GameBox

23. com.contact.withme.texts

24. com.cheery.message.sendsms (two different instances)

25. com.LPlocker.lockapps

26. Safety AppLock

27. Emoji Wallpaper

28. com.hmvoice.friendsms

29. com.peason.lovinglovemessage

30. com.remindme.alram

31. Convenient Scanner 2

32. Separate Doc Scanner

Earlier this year Google wrote in a blog that the Play Store has introduced new policies and have scaled up defences and Bread apps were forced to continually iterate to search for gaps and have used just about every cloaking and obfuscation technique possible to try and go undetected.

Google wrote, "Many of these samples appear to be designed specifically to attempt to slip into the Play Store undetected and are not seen elsewhere."