42 Adware Apps with 8 Million Downloads Traced Back to Vietnamese Student

First of all, if you have any of the below-listed apps installed on your Android device, you are advised to uninstall it immediately.

Cybersecurity researchers have identified 42 apps on the Google Play Store with a total of more than 8 million downloads, which were initially distributed as legitimate applications but later updated to maliciously display full-screen advertisements to their users.

Discovered by ESET security researcher Lukas Stefanko, these adware Android applications were developed by a Vietnamese university student, who easily got tracked likely because he never bothered to hide his identity.

The publicly available registration details of a domain associated with the adware apps helped find the identity of the rogue developer, including his real name, address, and phone number, which eventually led the researcher to his personal accounts on Facebook, GitHub, and YouTube.

“Seeing that the developer did not take any measures to protect his identity, it seems likely that his intentions weren’t dishonest at first,” Stefanko said in a blog post published today.

“At some point in his Google Play career, he apparently decided to increase his ad revenue by…