Recently, security researchers from Trend Micro found 14 malicious Android apps that can expose personal data and can also break into bank accounts.

These 14 apps can be found in the Google Play Store and are known to be spreading banking malware called 'DawDropper'.

These dozen apps were able to bypass the Play Store security system by using third-party cloud services. After being installed, these malicious apps then load the banking Trojan on the infected device.

The types of apps that are infected with malware are mostly productivity and utility apps, such as phone call recorders, document or QR code scanners, and VPN services.

Trend Micro did not disclose the number of downloads that have been collected by these 14 apps. Fortunately, most of these apps have already been kicked out of the Play Store by Google.

Quoted from Phone Arena, Tuesday (13/9/22), the 14 malicious apps that can break into bank accounts found by Trend Micro are:

Call Recorder APK

Rooster VPN

Super Cleaner – hyper & smart

Document Scanner – PDF Creator

Universal Saver Pro

Eagle photo editor

Call recorder pro+

Extra Cleaner

Crypto Utils

FixCleaner

Just In: Video Motion

Lucky Cleaner

Simpli Cleaner

Unicc QR Scanner

One of the most dangerous apps on this list is 'Unicc QR Scanner', which was previously known to also spread the Coper banking Trojan. This app also spreads other Trojans, such as the Octo malware which can record and control infected devices, steal credentials, and use victims' phones for criminal activities.

The DawDropper malware itself can launch layered attacks that are no less terrifying, namely:

Monitor and track the victim's activities on the phone

Steal credentials such as PIN, password and credentials for online banking applications

Access SMS, contacts, and phone features on your phone

Run scripts in the background to steal usernames and passwords for banking applications

Change browser settings, wallpaper, and lock screen on the device

Run abnormal activities, such as opening third-party applications or forcing restarts without user consent.

Although the above malicious apps have been blocked from the Play Store, users who have already downloaded them are advised to immediately delete them from their respective devices to prevent unwanted things from happening.

To protect yourself and your device from malware attacks, always download applications from official sources and carefully consider the applications you want to download, starting with who the developer is, what kind of data is accessed, and seeing reviews from other users.