According to Sophos research, 30 fleecewares were discovered in the Apple app store, which, added together, have been downloaded more than 3.5 million times. Until then, fleeceware threats had only been detected in the Play Store, Google’s store for Android devices. The term fleeceware was coined by Sophos itself in September, when the cybersecurity company began to observe the behavior of this threat. While initial analyzes found its presence only on the Play Store, a new report indicates that the threat has also infiltrated the App Store, iPhone (iOS) and iPad store. Among the 30 fleecewares discovered by Sophos, many offer common functions such as reading a QR code, editing photos with filters and effects, and astrological hand-reading or astrological chart services. However, despite the fact that most are labeled “free” on the App Store, many presented, at the first login, a form for the user to enter credit card data in order to use the app for a free trial period that usually lasts. three to seven days. As the subscriptions charged for fleecewares are expensive, a forgotten person, for example, is at risk of being a victim by not canceling the subscription before the end of the gratuity. Figures from Sophos show that some of the apps reviewed offered plans of $ 30 (about R $ 156) per month or $ 9 (R $ 46.80, in direct conversion) per week. Fleeceware apps on the App Store Seer App: Face, Horoscope, Palm Selfie Art – Photo Editor Palmistry Decoder Lucky Life – Future Seer Life Palmistry – AI Palm & Tag Picsjoy-Cartoon Effect Editor Aging seer – Faceapp, Horoscope Face Aging Scan-AI Age Camera Face Reader – Horoscope Secret Horoscope Secret CIAO – Live Video Chat Astro Time & Daily Horoscope Video Recorder / Reaction Crazy Helium Funny Face Editor Banuba: Face Filters & Effects QR Code Reader – Scanner QR Code Reader & Barcode PRO Max Volume Booster Face Reading – Horoscope 2020 Forecast Master 2019 mSpy Lite Phone Family Tracker Fortunescope: Palm Reader 2019 Zodiac Master Plus – Palm Scan WonderKey-Cartoon Avatar Maker Avatar Creator – Cartoon Emoji iMoji – Cartoon Avatar Emojis Life Insight-Palm & Animal Face Curiosity Lab-Fun Encyclopedia Quick Art: 1-Tap Photo Editor Astroline astrology, horoscope Celeb Twin – Who you look like My Replica – Celebrity Like Me How to protect yourself? The first step in suspecting fleeceware is to question whether the service offered is really worth paying for. Malicious applications do not usually have unusual functions. As the list above indicates, they generally offer photo filters, hand reading and creating avatars – and these features are now available for free at app stores by trusted manufacturers. In addition, it is recommended to avoid signing up for a free trial, no matter how tempting they are. The safest thing is to rely only on the temporary gratuity offered by brands already well known in the market. Another important point to pay attention to is the star rating of the app in the store. Many of the fleecewares observed by Sophos featured unsatisfied reviews that denounced the apps’ dangerous behavior.
