A new ad-fraud attack known as "Kaleidoscope" is posing a serious threat to Android phone owners. This attack tricks users into installing legitimate-looking apps that actually contain malicious code, leading to the display of intrusive ads on their devices. The attack is constantly evolving to evade detection and has already affected 2.5 million devices each month, with a significant number of incidents reported in India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Brazil. The malicious apps are often distributed through third-party app stores, exacerbating the spread of this threat.
Examples of the intrusive ads that appear on Android phones with malicious apps installed. | Image credit: IAS
Kaleidoscope lures users into installing the malicious apps by mimicking popular legitimate apps available on the Play Store. Once installed, these apps display aggressive ads, including full-screen images and videos, without user interaction. The ads generated by the malicious apps lead to financial gains for cybercriminals while causing inconvenience and performance issues for the device owners.
If you have any of these apps on your Android phone, delete them immediately. | Image credit: Forbes
Google has removed flagged apps from the Play Store and is taking steps to protect Android users from known instances of the Kaleidoscope attack. However, the involvement of negligent ad resellers raises concerns about the quality of ad inventory being delivered to advertisers. Users affected by this ad-fraud scheme may experience overheating, rapid battery drain, and sluggish device performance.
An alarming 2.5 million new installations of Kaleidoscope-infected apps occur monthly, highlighting the severity of this threat to Android users.
