Tech giant Google in a recent move removed 22 apps from its Play Store. The search engine pulled down these apps after Sophos, a cyber security company that makes security apps wrote a blog post about them. The Security researcher found that these apps were being used for ad fraud by hackers. This list includes some of the popular apps like Sparkle Flashlight with 1 million-plus downloads. Sophos report claimed that from the user's point of view, these apps will drain the phone's battery and may cause data overages as these apps are constantly running and communicating with servers in the background. Furthermore, the devices are fully controlled by the C2 server and can potentially install any malicious modules upon the instructions of the server".

Following the Sophos report Google has deleted 22 apps from the Play store. The apps were deemed malicious by Sophos, because like a computer or mobile virus, they have a backdoor built into them that helps the apps do ad-fraud. By and large these 22 apps were downloaded by over 2 million times before they were deleted from the play store.

Sophos in its investigation found that these apps were linked to Andr and Clickr-ad network. The security company claimed that “This is a well-organized, persistent malware that has the potential to cause serious harm to end users, as well as the entire Android ecosystem" because "these apps generate fraudulent requests that cost ad networks significant revenue as a result of the fake clicks."

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