Themes which privacy And computer security They have assumed an increasingly central role in the choices of companies and consumers, however, although technologies aimed at eliminating any danger or threat are increasingly advanced, even the dangers themselves do not remain stopped looking indeed, new malware and threats emerge ready to endanger the digital security of our sensitive data that now live the devices that we use daily.

On our pages we have often told you, more than we would like, of the appearance of viruses and fraudulent apps ready to damage users: in recent times, just to give some examples, we have seen about 300 Android apps that hid a malware for the theft of cryptocurrencies, more than one million infected TV boxes, but we have also seen a new variant of a harmful software capable of stealing the device pin, Of the infected apps downloaded from the Google Play Store, or even how the fakecall bank malware has become more subtle.

The latest threat to phones owners Android It is an adware that leads to install certain legitimate applications that bring numerous problems as soon as they are downloaded and installed on the devices. Let’s see what about.

Kaleidoscope is an annoying adware that is hidden in many legitimate apps

Is called “Kaleidoscope“And it is a Advertising fraud attack perpetrated through legitimate apps available on Google Play Store and apparently harmless. In fact, it is part of the macro category of malware and in the subgroup of Adware: These are nothing more than a category that does not bring particular damage to the user, but which is annoying as it shows a lot of advertising (hence the name that derives from advertising).

The problem presents itself in particular during internet navigation with numerous popup windows that prove to be particularly intrusive. Moreover, its presence on an infected device involves an increase in Internet traffic so if you mainly use the data connection you may notice anomalous consumption.

The Adware protagonist of today, Kaleidoscope, is based using the harmful counterparties of these apps but present in the third -party apps, which contribute to the spread of fraudulent ads.

The fraud was identified by IAS Thret Labsa specialized unit of “integral to science (IAS)”, it is US technological society leader in verifying digital advertising. Founded in 2015, this is dedicated to the identification, analysis and neutralization of online advertising fraud, protecting advertisers, publishers and users from fraudulent activities in the digital panorama.

The agency called this Kaleidoscope attack because it is able to change continuously to avoid being detected and dismantled. According to the data released by Threat Labs, 2.5 million new devices are compromised every month20% of which only in India.

Other areas in which Kaleidoscope has been discovered include Indonesia, Philippines and Brazil. To guide the expansion of this threat is the installation of applications and games harmful via third -party App Store.

How does Kaleidoscope work?

A user with Android device installs an app from the Play Store that looks like and works like a legitimate app; What happens later is the creation of a duplicate harmful of the app in a third party app store, even among the most popular; At this point messages and social media direct users to install the harmful version of these apps through third -party apps.

In fact, the owner of the Android device thinks they have installed a legitimate app and the advertisers, consequently, believe that their ads are displayed on safe apps and without harmful elements.

Once installed on a phone, the harmful version of the app will show intrusive advertisementsincluding full screen images and videos that do not require any interaction from the user and cannot be skipped.

In addition to the annoyance for the unfortunate owners of devices who find themselves with a phone victim of a fraud, this system leads to the gain to the IT criminals authors of the crime.

In addition, if that was not enough, this type of adware also causes the phone overheatingquickly download the battery and slows down the device with low -level performance.

Every month they occur well 2.5 million new installations of apps infected with Kaleidoscope, which makes the situation particularly serious and dangerous for Android users who use the third -party and non -third part apps.

The latter detail makes it clear that fraud is used by an peculiarity of Android since its principle (i.e. open-source nature) to introduce harmful elements that can completely compromise users in question in users.

It is a feature, that of Android and the possibility of installation of third -party apps, whose opening makes you think since scarcely regulated or controlled with the aim of leaving users for users (a freedom, albeit far lower, so on iOS it was necessary to intervene through laws such as the Digital Markets Act).

It is in such cases that this Open nature of Android, very often praised, clashes with reality and with the inevitable reverse of his medal: the difficulty in promptly identifying threats such as Kaleidoscope, insinuated within fraudulent apps in the third -party App Stores.

Therefore, if you also have only one of these applications of the following list we invite you to Uninstall them immediately in order to avoid unpleasant surprises:

  • chemistry.chemistry.chemistry
  • com.carromboard.friends.game
  • com.citiesquiz.nearme.gamecenter
  • com.herooloft.game.birdsonwire.freemium
  • com.herooloft.game.dragon_and_dracula.free
  • com.herooloft.game.free.mig29
  • com.herooloft.game.freemium.catchthecandy
  • com.herooloft.game.lite.st_ussr_usa
  • com.herooloft.game.raceillegal
  • com.herooloft.game.tresuresofthedeep
  • com.herooloft.game.yumsters.free
  • com.jdm4ikgames.daily86
  • com.onetouch.connect
  • com.pro.drag.racing.burnout
  • com.secondgames.dream.football.Soccper.league
  • com.shake.luxury.prado.car.parking.simulator
  • Com.TedraSoft.enigmas
  • com.uneonn.bhoot
  • com.uneonn.lovehindi
  • com.tutu.robatwarrior
  • Com.ZDDAPPS.BEAUTYTIPS
  • Com.Zddapps.totke
  • com.zombiehunter.Offline.games.fps.shooter
  • Constitution.indian.Constitution
  • Environment.ecology.environment
  • Formula.math.formulas
  • Indian.geography.geography
  • physics.physics.physics
  • com.temperament.nearme.gamecenter
  • math.mathematics.exam.math
  • English.idioms.english.phrases
  • History.indian.history.hindi
  • com.businessquo.nearme.gamecenter
  • Connect.dots
  • English.Preposition.english.Preposition
  • English.conversation.english.conversation
  • science.ncert.science
  • com.herooloft.game.free.medieval
  • Biology.biology.biology
  • com.herooloft.game.ww2

The titles reported by IAS Threat Labs in their investigation were promptly removed from the Play Store by Google, which also added that it will protect Android users from the known versions of Kaleidoscope.

In addition to the efforts produced by Google itself, prevention can be made daily; The advice is to download applications from reliable sites or, better still, directly from the Google Play Store using Google Play Protect and, more generally, to enjoy the apps and services on your smartphone with prudence and awareness of what you are doing and, above all, of the permits and authorizations you choose to grant.