8 apps you need to delete from your phone now

Beware, smartphone users: Your favorite apps may have brought Trojan horses to your device. Even worse, these are financial Trojans designed to put malware on your phone. They are droppers, which means they have been specifically coded to install malware and evade protective safeguards.

Trojans are difficult to detect, and they can easily consume your entire system. That’s why researchers released a list of “most wanted” malware on the web, telling you about the most dangerous viruses that can target your system. Tap or click here to take out the deadliest malware.

The most recent batch of malicious apps made it through the vetting process of the official App Store and may be pre-installed on your device. Keep reading to learn the risks involved and the list of eight apps to remove ASAP.

Is this creepy code infecting your phone?
Thanks to Check Point research, eight Google Play Store apps recently went dark. The researchers identified the bad agent as Clast82, a troubling dropper with parameters that allow apps to enable or disable malicious actions.

Basically, it installs Alienbot Banker, a malware variant that seeks to slip into victims’ accounts. Clast82 also installs MRAT, a super creepy program that gives third parties remote access to your mobile device. Together, these two programs can overtake your banking apps, boot you from your phone, and even intercept two-factor authentication codes.

You might wonder how such dangerous malware was allowed in the Google Play Store. When infected apps first hit Google Play, the parameter was set to “false” so that malware could not be detected. Once Google published the apps, the parameters changed and the malware was free to infect the victim’s devices.

“The ability of malware to remain undetected demonstrates the importance of why mobile security solutions are needed,” said a blog post by Check Point Research. “A solution that monitors devices, continuously scanning network connections and behavior by applications, will be able to detect such behavior.”

While this is a good solution for the future, you may want to take some concrete action now, especially if you’ve downloaded one of these malicious apps. Tap or click here to learn how to protect your Android gadget from malicious apps.

Here’s what to do. First go to Settings and then Applications. Scroll down to the infected app, then tap on it and hit Uninstall.

As you can see in the list of malicious apps, there are many virtual private network or VPN apps. Free VPN apps have been problematic lately, putting users’ devices at risk of getting infected with malware. That’s why it’s important to use a VPN that you can trust.

Now that you have booted Clast82 and its associated threats from your phone, you can take some extra steps to boost your security system. After all, if someone gets hold of your device, they can easily steal an inconvenient amount of personal information.

Some cybercriminals will even blackmail you, deceive you or put your privacy at risk. Tap or click here for six ways to protect your device from prying eyes.