Google Play has given the boot to 16 apps with more than 20 million combined installations after researchers detected malicious activity that could cause the Android devices they ran on to drain batteries faster and use more data than normal.From then on, infected devices received messages through the Google-owned Firebase Cloud Messaging platform that instructed them to open specific web pages in the background and select links to artificially inflate the number of clicks ads received.“This may cause heavy network traffic and consume power without user awareness during the time it generates profit for the threat actor behind this malware.”The post included the following screenshot illustrating a small sampling of the additional network demands a device made when performing the fraud.The apps detected by McAfee include:|Package name||SHA256||Name||Downloaded||com.hantor.CozyCamera||a84d51b9d7ae675c38e260b293498db071b1dfb08400b4f65ae51bcda94b253e||High-Speed Camera||10,000,000+||com.james.SmartTaskManager||00c0164d787db2ad6ff4eeebbc0752fcd773e7bf016ea74886da3eeceaefcf76||Smart Task Manager||5,000,000+||kr.caramel.flash_plus||b675404c7e835febe7c6c703b238fb23d67e9bd0df1af0d6d2ff5ddf35923fb3||Flashlight+||1,000,000+||com.smh.memocalendar||65794d45aa5c486029593a2d12580746582b47f0725f2f002f0f9c4fd1faf92c||달력메모장||1,000,000+||com.joysoft.wordBook||82723816760f762b18179f3c500c70f210bbad712b0a6dfbfba8d0d77753db8d||K-Dictionary||1,000,000+||com.kmshack.BusanBus||b252f742b8b7ba2fa7a7aa78206271747bcf046817a553e82bd999dc580beabb||BusanBus||1,000,000+||com.candlencom.candleprotest||a2447364d1338b73a6272ba8028e2524a8f54897ad5495521e4fab9c0fd4df6d||Flashlight+||500,000+||com.movinapp.quicknote||a3f484c7aad0c49e50f52d24d3456298e01cd51595c693e0545a7c6c42e460a6||Quick Note||500,000+||com.smartwho.SmartCurrencyConverter||a8a744c6aa9443bd5e00f81a504efad3b76841bbb33c40933c2d72423d5da19c||Currency Converter||500,000+||com.joysoft.barcode||809752e24aa08f74fce52368c05b082fe2198a291b4c765669b2266105a33c94||Joycode||100,000+||com.joysoft.ezdica||262ad45c077902d603d88d3f6a44fced9905df501e529adc8f57a1358b454040||EzDica||100,000+||com.schedulezero.instapp||1caf0f6ca01dd36ba44c9e53879238cb46ebb525cb91f7e6c34275c4490b86d7||Instagram Profile Downloader||100,000+||com.meek.tingboard||78351c605cfd02e1e5066834755d5a57505ce69ca7d5a1995db5f7d5e47c9da1||Ez Notes||100,000+||com.candlencom.flashlite||4dd39479dd98124fd126d5abac9d0a751bd942b541b4df40cb70088c3f3d49f8||손전등||1,000+||com.doubleline.calcul||309db11c2977988a1961f8a8dbfc892cf668d7a4c2b52d45d77862adbb1fd3eb||계산기||100+||com.dev.imagevault||bf1d8ce2deda2e598ee808ded71c3b804704ab6262ab8e2f2e20e6c89c1b3143||Flashlight+||100+|In a statement, a Google spokesperson noted that all apps reported by McAfee had been removed.The representative went on to say: “Users are also protected by Google Play Protect, which blocks these apps on Android devices.” The spokesperson didn’t answer a follow-up question asking how the apps racked up 20 million installations if they’re blocked."