TL;DR: If you installed any of the apps listed about half-way down the page of the full article: Uninstall it (if Google hasn't done it for you already) and change your banking credentials immediately.

Only 300,000 downloads, so the odds of a SFite having fallen victim to this one are pretty high.

quote:

Google Play apps downloaded 300,000 times stole bank credentials
Crooks find new ways to prevent Google from detecting malicious packages.
DAN GOODIN - 11/29/2021, 4:25 PM

Researchers said they’ve discovered a batch of apps downloaded from Google Play more than 300,000 times before the apps were revealed to be banking trojans that surreptitiously siphoned user passwords and two-factor authentication codes, logged keystrokes, and took screenshots.

The apps—posing as QR scanners, PDF scanners, and cryptocurrency wallets—belonged to four separate Android malware families that were distributed over four months.

Full article: Google Play apps downloaded 300,000 times stole bank credentials

Might be a false sense of security, but it seems like the Apple app store is a bit more secure.

Nonetheless I checked by daughter's Android phone and none of these apps exist, luckily.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
Might be a false sense of security, but it seems like the Apple app store is a bit more secure.

The Apple app store hasn't been entirely immune from this kind of thing, but I've seen far more reports of it occurring on Google's Android app store than Apple's. I'm guessing by a couple orders of magnitude? (Seat-of-the-pants estimate.)

This is one of the things, after about the third such report in about twice as many months, that was one of the precipitating reasons I switched our household a few years ago.

Part of the reason it doesn't happen as often on the Apple app store might be the barrier to entry is much higher. That's one reason many apps on Android aren't available on Apple.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ensigmatic,

WTF, I'm supposed to check the list and see if I downloaded them? How about Google play do an automatic update to replace the infected apps?

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
WTF, I'm supposed to check the list and see if I downloaded them? How about Google play do an automatic update to replace the infected apps?

It does, once Google finds out.

I had QR Scanner on mine. Hard to get at the actual package name, so I deleted it and installed Kaspersky QR scanner

quote:

Originally posted by saigonsmuggler:

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
WTF, I'm supposed to check the list and see if I downloaded them? How about Google play do an automatic update to replace the infected apps?

It does, once Google finds out.

True, but, if you had had one of the named apps on your mobile device(s) and it had already snagged your banking credentials, that won't do you a lot of good.

Btw: scratchy, it's not all QR code readers. Just certain ones.

One of the reasons I don't keep any financial information on my phone and resist downloading a bunch of different apps.

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
One of the reasons I don't keep any financial information on my phone and resist downloading a bunch of different apps.

Well, I lock and unlock my credit cards with the phone using the bank app..... to get higher security for the cards.

I guess it's a catch-22

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
One of the reasons I don't keep any financial information on my phone ...

Conversely: Using Apple Pay with my iPhone and Apple Watch protects me from compromised Point of Sale terminals and lets me know of card activity instantly. Having my banking app on my phone and tablet allows me to keep track of our assets there no matter where I am.

So you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.

quote:

Originally posted by calugo:
... and resist downloading a bunch of different apps.

That is wise.

They should pay a fine of $1000 for every malicious download