Researchers discover 172 malicious apps on Google Play Store

The malicious category includes the applications that are infected by adware, subscription scams, hidden ads, SMS premium subscription, and more.

172 malicious apps found on Google Play Store (Indranil Bhoumik/min)

Researchers have detected a total of 172 infected apps with over 335 million installs found on Googles Play Store in September alone. ESET researcher Lukas Stefanko said that the majority of those 172 malicious apps were harbouring adware, Threatpost reported on Tuesday.

"Unwanted ads or adware is popular category because after installation it does not request any further inputs, like banking trojans, and can simply generate revenue for developers right from the beginning," Threatpost quoted Stefanko.

"Also, it is not as difficult to create adware as it is to create Android ransomware or banking Trojans," Stefanko added.

The malicious category includes the applications that are infected by adware, subscription scams, hidden ads, SMS premium subscription, and more.

As per the report, most of the applications that were found to be malicious have been removed.

To recall, last month Google removed 46 apps from the marketplace belonging to Chinese mobile developer iHandy.