SAN FRANCISCO, United States — Meta warned a million Facebook users Friday
that they have been “exposed” to seemingly innocuous smartphone applications
designed to steal passwords to the social network.
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So far this year, Meta has identified more than 400
“malicious” apps tailored for smartphones powered by Apple or Android software
and available at the Apple and Google app stores, director of threat disruption
David Agranovich said during a briefing.
“These apps were listed on the Google Play Store and
Apple’s App Store and disguised as photo editors, games, VPN services, business
apps, and other utilities to trick people into downloading them,” Meta said in
a blog post.
The apps often ask people to login with their Facebook
account information to use promised features, stealing usernames and passwords
if entered, according to Meta’s security team.
“They are just trying to trick people into entering
in their login information in a way that enables hackers to access their
accounts,” Agranovich said of the apps.
“We will notify one million users that they may have
been exposed to these applications; that is not to say they have been
compromised.”
More than 40 percent of the apps Meta listed
involved ways to edit or manipulate images, and some were as seemingly simple
as using smartphones as flashlights.
“Our sense is these types of malicious app
developers try to target multiple services,” Agranovich said, noting the app
creators are likely after passwords to more than just Facebook accounts.
“The targeting here seemed to be relatively
indiscriminate — get people to download the applications around the world in an
attempt to get access to as many login credentials as possible.”
Meta said that it shared what it discovered with
Apple and Google, who control what is offered at their respective app shops and
each vet offerings.
Apple told AFP that only 45 of the 400 applications
highlighted by Meta were on its operating system, and that the company has
already removed them from its app store.
Google said that most of the apps Meta flagged had
already been identified and removed from the Play store by its own vetting
systems.
“All of the apps identified in the report are no
longer available on Google Play,” a spokesperson told AFP.
“Users are also protected by Google Play Protect,
which blocks these apps on Android.”
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