9 programs caught on identity theft

Smartphones are so ingrained in our daily lives that if you lose your own or steal it, it will be more than just an inconvenience. Tap or click here to find your phone if it is lost (even if the battery is low).

Thousands of photos, contacts and messages may be lost in the blink of an eye. The worrying aspect is that criminals don’t need to steal your physical phone. Malware has been used for years to obtain personal information, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

A batch of spyware found in the official app store has vulnerabilities in its code that could reveal personal information. Read on to see a list of bad apps so you can uninstall them as soon as possible.

Here is the background

Spyware can be used to track children and make sure they are always where they need to be to ensure their safety. Of course, spyware can also be used maliciously to track people. In such situations it is known as stalkerware.

Some use stalkerware to keep track of their spouse or ex. Stalker downloads spyware to the phone of the person he wants to track, usually without his knowledge.

Aside from the expected risks of using spyware, a new threat has been identified in a collection of Android apps found in the Google Play Store.

For several months, TechCrunch investigated spyware and found a dangerous flaw in nine of them. The problem is that applications do not sufficiently authenticate or authorize API requests. This means that a remote attacker without authentication can access personal information from any device with one of the spyware programs installed.

The apps have been downloaded more than 400,000 times in eight countries, including the United States.

Uninstall these programs that distribute data

The investigation found nine nearly identical applications from 1Byte that have a flaw in data disclosure.

Here is a list of defective applications:

1. Copy9
2. MxSpy
3. TheTruthSpy
4. iSpyoo
5. The second clone
6. TheSpyApp
7. ExactSpy
8. FoneTracker
9. GuestSpy

Once any of the apps are on your device, it will give cybercriminals access to view data that includes:

• Messages
• Contacts
• Location
• Photos
• Call history

If you have any programs on the list, uninstall them immediately. Here’s how to uninstall apps on your Android phone:

• Open up Google Play Store the app on your phone.
• In the upper right corner click on your own profile picture.
• Click Manage programs and devicesthen Manage.
• Go through the list of installed applications and see those in the list.
• Click on application name you want to delete and then click Delete.

Keep reading

FTC has just banned a spy app with 1 million downloads – How to find out if it is on your phone

Is the phone hacked? Apple says it will warn you if your iPhone has spyware