Security is one of the critical points of our smartphone, I will never tire of saying it. Malicious users always try to find the way to sneak into our system, so we must be well informed. An overwhelming news jumped into the limelight a few hours ago, a malware distributed through Adsense infects more than 300,000 Android devices.
Android devices are a very juicy target for criminals, for the simple fact that in them we use our online banking accounts, we access PayPal or similar payment system and even store very sensitive personal data (photos, documents, etc) .
A malware distributed through Adsense infects more than 300,000 Android devices.
The question that you will be asking yourself is if your Android device is infected, most likely not, but read on to be able to verify it and in the process you will be informed in order to protect yourself more effectively.
The infection system was very simple, they used advertising to promote an application, an APK file that we downloaded to our device and then installed. To reach users, they used the Google Adsense advertising system, which is present on most reputable websites.
They used ads that showed an alert saying that our device had been infected and proposed a solution that happened to install the APK. This alert was shown through a banner, a pop-up or similar. Many people alarmed to click to try to solve the problem and at that time the APK file was downloaded to the storage of the device.
As many of you already know, to install an APK file, the option "Unknown sources" must be activated, in the alert itself we could read the instructions to activate this option and thus "solve the problem". For many users this system may seem ridiculous, but Android is an operating system that reaches millions of people, many of them with very basic knowledge and end up falling into the trap.
For all this to happen, we had to surf the internet with a browser, whatever (Chrome, FireFox, etc) and follow the instructions of the false alert. So you know, if you are browsing and you get an alert of this type, ignore it.
Source (in English): Securelist .