51 Fraudulent 'Porn Clicker' Malware Apps Removed from Google Play Store

Google undoubtedly has their hands full when it comes to discovering and eliminating malicious apps that frequently appear on its Play Store designed supply Android apps for many different mobile devices. In particular, Google has had to remove the malware known as Porn Clicker from the Play Store, which was contained within 51 apps on the online store.

Over the course of the past three months, about 60 fake apps have been downloaded 210,000 times. Most of the apps are ones that slip onto the Play Store, which commonly contain malware or some form of malicious intent to exploit the end-user of the app. Of those 60 fake apps, about 51 of them were found to have the Porn Clicker malware built-in.

From what computer security researchers know, the Porn Clicker malware attempts to steal authentication details and login credentials. Most times, when downloaded, Porn Clicker-infected apps will present themselves as games or system applications that seem mostly harmless and quite useful for many users due to its promised features. Moreover, Porn Clicker-infected apps may access porn websites and click on advertisements leading to a case where data allowance limits are surpassed and the website loading racks up a massive cellular data bill for the device user.

Smartphone users and the specific fans of certain operating system platforms cannot help but to contrast the differences in the Google Play Store and Apple's App store. Apple has remained out of the malware limelight due to the stringent processing methods all apps are put through before they go live on the store. With the Google Play Store, apps are said to be scanned using a technology called Bouncer but researchers have discovered the scan isn't catching everything. Basically, apps that contain malware avoid giving away their malicious intentions until after they are scanned, which will normally allow them to be placed live and ready for download on the Google Play Store. Such is the case of the 51 apps infected with Porn Clicker.

Since the discovery of Porn Clicker-infected apps on the Play Store, Google has removed them all. The bulk of such apps were all fake versions of legitimate apps, including Flappy Birds, Clash of Clans 2, Pou 2, Subway Surfers 2 and 3, Minecraft 3, and Hay Day 2. Allegedly, the fake malware-infected apps were live on the store for nearly a full week.

Google is diligently working to cast a larger net with smaller holes for malicious apps to fall through. While Android device users hardly notice malicious apps downloaded and run on their devices, malware like Porn Clicker could be causing serious havoc and is never caught until a bill for thousands of dollars due to data overages appears in the mailbox.

Unfortunately, the Google Play Store is often hit with malicious apps and this isn't the first or last time of such occurrences. We have reported in the past how malware is targeting Android devices at alarming rates, making up the majority of the malware landscape for all smartphone devices, which is numbered in the billions.

While Porn Clicker is only one example of dozens of malware-infected Android apps on the Play Store, there are many others that Google has run across and promptly removed – sometimes not soon enough for many Android users.