İstanbul Gelisim Vocational School - myo@gelisim.edu.tr

Information Security Technologies








 Heed This Warning for Mobile Applications


Regarding the vulnerability problems encountered in mobile applications, security research company Dr.Web announced that spyware called 'SpinOk' targeting Android users has been detected in more than 100 Android applications. This statement is stated to affect not a small number of users, which is more than 400 million users! Dr.Web announced that they came across the 'SpinOk' software in most of the Android applications.


The SpinOk malware is available as a mobile software development kit for advertisers to use. Once installed on users' devices, the software violates privacy rules by sending the user's private data to a remote server, in addition to enabling the display of incognito ads. This software also uses device sensors to verify that it collects real user data, highlighting the fact that this is unethical.
Dr.Web states that most of the mobile apps containing the malware in question have been significantly removed by the Google Play Store, but also states that some apps are still available on the Google Play Store. For this reason, he stated that every update released should be installed after careful examination.
He listed some popular applications affected by the SpinOk software, and explained some of them along with their download numbers:
*Cashzine – Earn Prize Money – number of downloads:10M
*Crazy Drop – 10 million Downloads
*Mvbit – Mv Video Status Maker – number of downloads: 50 million
*Noizz: Video Editor with Music – downloads:100 million
*Biugo – Video Maker & Video Editor – downloads: 50 million
*Zapya – File Transfer, Sharing – number of downloads: 100 million
*Vfly: Video Editor & Video Maker – downloads: 50 million
*Fizzo Novel – Offline Reading – number of downloads: 10 million
 
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