I recently found that my Nexus 7 automatically launches the Play Store with the focus on either Sex Positions and Sex Chat or Search KIK Friends. Both apps are developed by BlueAppFind. The only thing that preceded this behavior is that I have installed Viber Chat. I have uninstalled Viber but this is still happening.

How can I find out which app is responsible for automatically launching the Play Store at random intervals & how do I stop this from happening?

I would very much appreciate any help.

Regards,
Stefan

AVG offers a virus scanning app. It will look for malware. I'd install it.

You should backup up all of your pictures, your contacts, and any other data you may have on the phone. Personally I'd just wipe the phone and restore my data. Then manually install the applications I need. That is the best route in my opinion. Otherwise you can't ever be sure that a back door has been left behind in your phone.

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Thanks!!!

I posted the same question on android forums & I had a suggestion there to get an app which could help detect push advertising & addons. I have tried a few but none of these turned up anything. I then installed the AVG app & it found "Viber Chat". I accidentally installed this app thinking it was Viber. Since all these issues started happening I uninstalled anything with "Viber" in it. "Viber Chat" somehow did not show up in my list of installed applications. AVG found it & gave me the option of uninstalling it.

I find it amazing that an app can somehow avoid showing up in the installed apps list & also run in the background without showing up on the list of currently running processes. Very annoying.

Regards,
Stefan

I find it amazing that malware trojans find there way into a play store at all. Don't they screen the apps first?

I can imagine screening the apps don't do much in the case of a time bomb. e.g. an app behaves sensibly until after a certain date and then starts to behave maliciously. That would get by either the play store or the apple store because when they're tested by the vendor the app "seems okay" but is in fact a black box for them to poke and prod. This is why open source freedom matters (the GNU version). i.e. you can still sell your software and be freely open source.

@ propofol

I use Lookout as my main app for antivirus/malware, security and data protection.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....lookout&hl=en

I've been there like you when I got malware on my phone and it sucks. To play it safe, I just backup my stuff and did a reset because you'll never know if the malware or it's child processes are still present or what they're doing behind the scenes.

After the reset, I installed Lookout and things been fine since. I am still cautious when installing apps tho, I read the comments of users and the ratings and I judge accordingly whether to install or not.

Also, there are some sites where you can get paid versions of android apps. Stay away from those because it can have malicious codes aside from the app itself.

Anyway, best of luck

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Android just passed 1 million attacks a few months ago. Topped MS even.

I'd do a full restore to factory. You can't possibly know were this attack came from. Who knows, every app asks for full permission.

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I think I will have to bite the bullet and do the full rest/restore. "Lookout" sounds useful app.

Well. that's the price we have to pay when using operating systems with the highest market shares.

BTW, the free service of Lookout is good enough for most, but if you do alot of web surfing on the device, the optional $30 a year service is worth it because it provides extra protection on web surfing.

Good luck

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