Google bans malicious apps from its Google Play Store whenever it finds them there or comes to know about them when security companies point it out. This kind of action goes a long way in protecting users from scams on the internet. In the latest such instance, the company has banned two new smart TV-based apps from the Google Play Store. These two apps are ‘Smart TV remote’ and ‘Halloween Coloring’. Out of these, the former has been downloaded at least 1,000 times. The information comes courtesy of Kaspersky’s security analyst Tatyana Shishkova who took to Twitter to disclose the names of two malicious apps on the Google Play Store. Shishkova says that these apps come with Trojanised Joker malware.

Notably, Joker malware is known to subscribe users to premium content without their knowledge. Earlier this year, over 5,00,000 Huawei devices were found to be infected with Joker malware. Bleeping Computer also analysed the code of these malicious apps, that is, ‘Smart TV remote’ and ‘Halloween Coloring’ and it found out that it exists in the “resources/assets/kup3x4nowz” file within the Smart TV remote app.