NETWORK & APPLICATIONS
Cybercriminals frequently employ encryption to conceal their malicious code from reviewers , or they insert a delay to prevent the app ' s malicious intent from appearing until after it has been published in the app store .
With OpenAI ' s AI image generator , DALL-E 2 , a wave of AI-based mobile applications that create artistic images based on photos emerged . While some of these apps are genuine , others may be malicious apps seeking to exploit recent AI trends .
6.2 % of threats that McAfee identified on Google during 2022 were in the
‘ Communication ’ category , mainly malware masquerading as SMS apps . But even legitimate communication apps can create an opportunity for scammers . They will use fraudulent messages to trick consumers into clicking on a malicious link , trying to get them to share login credentials , account numbers , or personal information .
Though these messages sometimes contain spelling or grammar errors , or use odd phrasing , the emergence of AI tools like ChatGPT can help scammers clean up their spelling and grammar mistakes , making it tougher to spot scam messages by mistakes in the content . The severity of these communication threats is also evident in the volume of adults ( 66 %) who have been messaged by a stranger on social media , with 55 % asked to transfer money .
A total of 23 % of threats that McAfee identified were in the " Tools " app category . Work-related apps for mobile devices are great productivity boosters – categories like PDF editors , VPNs , messaging managers , document scanners , battery boosters , and memory cleaners .
These types of apps are targeted for malware because people expect the app to require permissions on their phones . Asking for permissions to storage , messaging , calendars , contacts , location , and even system settings is not unusual and enables scammers to retrieve all sorts of work-related information .
9 % of threats that McAfee identified were games from app categories such as casual , arcade , and action . Malicious apps often target things that children and teens like , such as gaming , making videos , and managing social media . The most common types of threats detected within the gaming category in 2022 was aggressive adware – apps that display excessive advertisements while using the app and even when you ' re not using it .
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