238 applications found on Play Store contain malicious code that paralyzes smartphones

Security experts discovered in 238 applications on Google Play Store that contain advertising code called BeiTaAd. With a total of 440 million downloads and hundreds of millions of infected devices, hacking behind has earned a small amount of money by displaying advertisements on users' devices.

Within 24 hours to 1 week after being installed, BeiTaAd malicious code does not do anything unusual. This makes Android users never realize that they have installed an application containing ad code on the device.

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Even if BeiTaAd is enabled and displays ads, users do not know which application is the cause of the problem because it displays ads outside the app, usually on the lock screen and even running sounds. / video in random times.

On the Android forum, many users responded to their smartphone being infected with BeiTaAd and unable to delete it. Even, BeiTaAd has caused smartphone paralysis, can not be used.

Lookout said that the hacker tried to hide the existence of BeiTaAd ad code by 238 applications and all of them were released by Chinese company named CooTek.

After receiving reports and a list of 238 apps, Google quickly removed them all from Play Store. But how these applications overcome censorship barriers and appear on Play Store is still a mystery.