Google has removed a large number of apps from the official Android App Market that were discovered to contain malware.

Google has removed a large number of apps from the official Android App Market that were discovered to contain malware, the company has confirmed. Before Google took action, however, the apps were downloaded over 50,000 times. A fix for infected users is said to be in the works.

The apps were essentially copies of other popular apps, modified slightly to contain a trojan horse. App publisher Myournet then posted the malware apps on the App Market, 21 in total. Described as a "root exploit," the trojan is able to steal all of the Android devices infected data and even download code that could repurpose the phone to perform actions (for example, send the phone's data to the hacker) without the user's knowledge.

After learning about the problem from a Reddit user, the site Android Police informed Google about the malicious apps, and it reportedly took the company less than five minutes to pull all 21 of them from the App Market. Unfortunately for users, the apps were posted for four days, and in that time they were apparently downloaded more than 50,000 times. A fix is supposedly in the works.

The scare comes just a couple of days after a report from Symantec that warned about —and specifically trojans—were on the rise. Symantec's official blog pointed out that apps with a piece of code called "Android.Pjapps." Symantec says the code can, without the users's knowledge, "install applications, navigate to websites, add bookmarks to your browser, send text messages, and optionally block text message responses."

For now, Myournet's malware apps have been removed from the App Market. But the news shows the downside of Google's relatively open Android platform, which stands in stark contrast to Apple's heavily vetted App Store. Apple checks and approves ever app that is posted on the App Store and sometimes rejects apps for confusing reasons, whereas Android Developers can, once they've registered with Google, publish apps whenever they want. Such an approach leaves many of the security concerns up to the user.

More information about this story is posted at our sister site, Security Watch.

Android Police's full list of the removed apps is on the next page. Click the "Next Story" link below to see the names of the trojan-spreading apps.

Full list of trojan-infected malware apps from Android publisher Myournet:

1. Falling Down

2. Super Guitar Solo

3. Super History Eraser

4. Photo Editor

5. Super Ringtone Maker

6. Super Sex Positions

7. Hot Sexy Videos

8. Chess

9. 下坠滚球_Falldown

10. Hilton Sex Sound

11. Screaming Sexy Japanese Girls

12. Falling Ball Dodge

13. Scientific Calculator

14. Dice Roller

15. 躲避弹球

16. Advanced Currency Converter

17. App Uninstaller

18. 几何战机_PewPew

19. Funny Paint

20. Spider Man

21. 蜘蛛侠