Many of you must have been experiencing that your data limit is always exceeded and battery life of Android runs out real quick. Oracle, a technology company has found that this could be possible because of an advertising software installed on your Android devices.
DrainerBot, a code, downloads gigabytes of video ads without the user noticing it. Then it plays these ads invisibly on the devices that are affected by the bot. There are hundreds of apps, with the collective download of over 10 million, have been affected by this.
The malicious bot uses mobile’s data connection and processing power to play the ads invisibly. According to Moat's study, DrainerBot can consumes around 10GB data per month, and the user is overcharged for the mobile phone data usage.
Eric Roza, a senior vice president at Oracle said that not only consumers but digital marketers are also looted. They are charged for the ads that no one will see. There are three layers of victims involved in this crime, which is something new.
DrainerBot was first discovered last year by Oracle researchers when a network analyst spotted a suspicious entry in the data traffic of an Android device. The bot’s code was traced which led to a Dutch firm called Tapcore.
Tapcore a tool that helps app developers reclaim their revenue especially when an app used illegally. The company released a statement saying that they are not intentionally involved in the bot discovered. They have started their own investigation after the discovery made by Oracle.
Before launching an app, developers integrate Tapcore software into their app's coding, which plays ads when an app is installed illegitimately. However, the software does not mention the ad bot to its advertiser's on its formal services document.
On the other hand, Google has taken action against the infected apps as mentioned by the Oracle. Some of them has been blacklisted, a few under investigation whereas, other apps are either already removed or were never launched on the Google app store.
Tapcore’s software sleeps in the infected core for a while and then reaches out to the server to download the code for activating the DrainerBot. This sleep mode and then late process made it hard to identify its presence.
Marketers are expected to be briefed about DrainerBot this week, by ads industry groups.
Oracle’s advertising analytics subsidiary, Moat can be accessed to see the list of these infected apps along with instructions about how they can be removed from your Android devices.
Read Next: Beware Of The New Technique Used By Cyber Criminals To Steal Payment Data
DrainerBot, a code, downloads gigabytes of video ads without the user noticing it. Then it plays these ads invisibly on the devices that are affected by the bot. There are hundreds of apps, with the collective download of over 10 million, have been affected by this.
The malicious bot uses mobile’s data connection and processing power to play the ads invisibly. According to Moat's study, DrainerBot can consumes around 10GB data per month, and the user is overcharged for the mobile phone data usage.
Eric Roza, a senior vice president at Oracle said that not only consumers but digital marketers are also looted. They are charged for the ads that no one will see. There are three layers of victims involved in this crime, which is something new.
DrainerBot was first discovered last year by Oracle researchers when a network analyst spotted a suspicious entry in the data traffic of an Android device. The bot’s code was traced which led to a Dutch firm called Tapcore.
Tapcore a tool that helps app developers reclaim their revenue especially when an app used illegally. The company released a statement saying that they are not intentionally involved in the bot discovered. They have started their own investigation after the discovery made by Oracle.
Before launching an app, developers integrate Tapcore software into their app's coding, which plays ads when an app is installed illegitimately. However, the software does not mention the ad bot to its advertiser's on its formal services document.
On the other hand, Google has taken action against the infected apps as mentioned by the Oracle. Some of them has been blacklisted, a few under investigation whereas, other apps are either already removed or were never launched on the Google app store.
Tapcore’s software sleeps in the infected core for a while and then reaches out to the server to download the code for activating the DrainerBot. This sleep mode and then late process made it hard to identify its presence.
Marketers are expected to be briefed about DrainerBot this week, by ads industry groups.
Oracle’s advertising analytics subsidiary, Moat can be accessed to see the list of these infected apps along with instructions about how they can be removed from your Android devices.
Read Next: Beware Of The New Technique Used By Cyber Criminals To Steal Payment Data
