Last week, security company SophosLabs reported that there were several Android application codes malicious applications on the Google Play store. The number of downloads of these malicious applications exceeded 500,000. Researchers at SophosLabs detected that the six QR code scanning applications and a smart compass application contained malicious code “Andr/HiddnAd-AJ” that uses QR code to send malicious advertisements to users.
An author ZDNet website, Danny Palmer disclosed relevant reports. “Following installation, the malware waits for six hours before it begins work on its true purpose – serving up adware, flooding the user with full screen adverts, opening adverts on webpages and sending various notifications containing ad related links.”