NEW YORK (DPA) - Google's Android mobile phone operating system suffered a massive attack from computer criminals, so the firm had to delete numerous applications with malicious software, software security company Lookout reported.
A security specialist at the firm, which has an antivirus for cell phones, discovered more than 50 applications that contained "malware", programs that could access, among others, personal information of users. Google then removed those apps from its Android Market online store.
The attackers hid their "malware" in harmless-looking programs such as a chess game, a photo editing program, and a coin converter.
Lookout posted a full list of the programs online. Security experts have long warned that criminals are increasingly targeting smartphones as a target of their attacks, since most of these computers, which have access to the Internet, do not have antivirus or firewalls.
Google offers Android as an open platform on which apps — unlike Apple's iPhone — don't pass controls before being hung in its store. However, developers have to register when presenting their products and then they can be tracked.
Source: La Nación.com
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