With the word Malware we can make out Joker Malware is software specially designed to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorized access of a computer system as per Cyber security researcher. Joker Malware stole money from many users account by signing them for premium subscriptions. The Malware is said to have infected 24 apps on the Google Play Store it makes people their paid subscribers without their knowledge to steal or extract money. 37 countries, majorly Asia and European Union has been affected. India is one of the infected countries.
As per relevant source countries that were targeted by the Malware included Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, China, Cyprus, Egypt ,France, Germany, Ghana, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Kuwait, Malaysia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Argentina, Serbia, Singapore, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, UK and US.
Though the apps has been removed from the Play Store, still those who have them on the mobile installed and have forgotten their presence must delete it as early as possible. Joker Malware make the phone users their paid subscribers in a quiet and silent manner without even making them understand. The OTP sent on the mobile of the user is assessed by stealing victims SMS message to authenticate payments .OTP is a sensitive number that is sent by the bank account to the users registered number through which authentication of a payment Is done
The extracted code is submitted to the office webpage to enable the premium subscription. In short, people may not even know that they have been subscribed for a relatively longer period of time and are being charged for that. Majorly Asia and European Union were affected by the Malware and in total 24 different apps were infected with the Malware apps where claimed to be installed 472000 Times .Below is a list of 24 apps that are Malware infested;-
⦁ Advocate Wallpaper
⦁ Age Face
⦁ Altar Message
⦁ Antivirus Security – Security Scan
⦁ Beach Camera
⦁ Board Picture Editing
⦁ Certain Wallpaper
⦁ Climate SMS
⦁ Collate Face Scanner
⦁ Cute Camera
⦁ Dazzle Wallpaper
⦁ Declare Message
⦁ Display Camera
⦁ Great VPN
⦁ Humour Camera
⦁ Ignite Clean
⦁ Leaf Face Scanner
⦁ Mini Camera
⦁ Print Plant Scan
⦁ Rapid Face Scanner
⦁ Reward Clean
⦁ Ruddy SMS
⦁ Soby Camera
⦁ Spark Wallpaper
The above app has been removed from the Play Store however those who have downloaded them on their mobile and are still using must delete it as soon as possible. Once the Malware is successful in integrating into our Android mobile, one has no control over what is accessed from the mobile. Also check your credit card statements as a precaution to know if money is deducted from them. Normally when we download any app it is important to know what parts of our phone are being assessed or are asked for assessing. Hence whenever we find any such problem regarding assessment one must not install it in the first place. One must take care of the silent transactions that take place due to such Malware integration that is the only way one can protect them.