Cyber security firm, Lookout has posted on their blog informing Android users about a new family of malware named ‘BadNews’ that is making its way around the Google Play Store.
Google Play statistics shows that millions of users have received the BadNews and it can be found in 32 apps across four different developer accounts.
The malware disguises itself as advertisements that have the ability to “send fake news messages, prompt users to install applications and sends sensitive information such as the phone number and device ID to its Command and Control (C&C) server” Lookout wrote.
Most of the applications have come from Europe with nearly half from Russia where it was recording as sending premium rate SMS fraud messages in the Russian federation to infected devices.
Marc Rogers, Principal Security Researcher at Lookout, wrote “We have notified Google and they promptly removed all apps and suspended the associated developer accounts pending further investigation.”
