3 ways to spot a malware-infected app on your smartphone

Google recently removed a popular screen-recording app for Android known as iRecorder - Screen Recorder from the Play Store after it was revealed to be stealing information from users. The app debuted in the Play Store in 2021 and was seemingly harmless. However, an update in 2022 introduced malicious functionality to devices that downloaded the app. The malware embedded into iRecorder allowed the app to access audio, media files, and webpages from the user's phone. According to TechCrunch, the malware is called AhRat, an open-source remote access trojan that can access a user's phone and is similar to spyware. Also: Don't get scammed by fake ChatGPT apps: Here's what to look for Users who downloaded iRecorder would allow the app to access their device's microphone, photos, media, and files, which is not out of the ordinary for a screen-recording app. But with the malware that was embedded into the app, the user's files were accessible to bad actors. According to Lukas Stefanko, an ESET security researcher, it's a rare occurrence that a developer submits an innocuous app to a mobile application store and then updates it with malware. Also: Your phone contains your most personal information. Here's how to keep it safe But this phenomenon belongs to a category of malware called versioning, in which a developer submits a seemingly ordinary app to an application store, then later update it with malicious code. By versioning an app, shady developers can bypass an application marke...