Bad apps can wreak havoc on the best Android phones, so you should always be careful when installing new apps However, even if you download new software through the Google Play Store, you may still see malicious apps on your phone

As reported by BleepingComputer, cybersecurity firm Zscaler has revealed that it has found more than 90 malicious apps on google PlayIt was collectively installed 550 million times

The company doesn't offer the names of most of these malicious apps, but we know that many of them disguise productivity, personalization, and health & fitness apps along with other utilities

Here's this most of the bad apps that include those two names that need to be removed immediately if they are installed on your Android device

As mentioned earlier, Zscaler has not yet released a complete list of more than 90 malicious apps discovered in the past few months But it provided information about two particularly dangerous apps in a new report that should be removed immediately if you have them installed:

Fortunately, both of these apps have been removed from the Google Play Store and can no longer be downloaded However, if you have installed it on your Android phone or tablet, you will have to uninstall it manually

As we have seen in the past, bad apps can slip through the cracks and end up in the Google Play Store Both of the above apps are what is known as malware droppers, and according to Zscaler, together they have been installed a total of 70,000 times

These dropper apps can bypass Google's strict security checks because they do not contain malware when uploaded to the Play Store Instead, the app communicates with the hacker-controlled Command and Control (C&C) server after installation to download the malware

In this case, both of these utility apps are being used to infect vulnerable Android phones with the anatsa banking trojan This Android malware targets more than 650 banking apps in the US, UK, Europe and Asia to steal their financial credentials In fact, during a malware campaign late last year, Anatsa was able to infect 150,000 Android phones via Google Play using a bad app

Like other banking trojans, Anatsa uses overlay attacks to steal bank credentials These overlays are, in fact, fake websites designed to mimic the look and feel of the login page of a popular banking app However, instead of logging into your account, you can also give hackers a username and password

Anatsa can also commit fraud on the device by launching its own banking app and performing transactions on behalf of the victim This not only saves hackers time, but also increases their chances of success, because when someone logs into their account on their device, they don't raise as many doubts as another Android phone

To stay safe from this and other Android malware strains, you'll want to limit the number of apps on your phone Even a seemingly innocent app asks yourself if you really need a specific app before you download and install it

Because of this, you want to stick to a larger, more widely known app developer with a history of announcing great software Similarly, if you use a paid app as opposed to a free app, you are much less likely to encounter malware Before installing the app, I would also like to check its ratings and reviews, but these can be faked, so I would like to check the app in question before downloading

To protect yourself and your device from malware, you should also consider running one of the best Android antivirus apps for your existing apps and useful features like VPN and password manager, with the additional protection it downloads for malware1

In an email to Tom's Guide, a Google spokesperson provided further insight into these malicious apps: "All of the malicious apps identified have been removed from Google Play Google Play Protect will automatically remove or disable apps known to contain this malware on Android devices with Google Play services"

Hopefully, Zscaler will release a full list of 90+ malicious apps it has discovered over the past few months Even if not, this new Anatsa campaign serves as a perfect reminder that you should always be careful when downloading and installing new software, even if it's from the official app store