Popular apps on smart phones can be fun and engaging but they may contain malicious software, or malware, which can give hackers access to the user’s data. 

According to a study by cyber-security company, Nowsecure, out of more than 400,000 apps available on Google Play store, 10.8 per cent access sensitive data over the network, 24.7 per cent have at least one high-risk security flaw, and 50 per cent send data to an ad network including phone numbers, call logs and location coordinates. 

Some apps that access mobile data more than they actually require will share phone numbers with a third party, while some can even get the whole control of the device and can misuse personal information such as bank details, passwords and photos in various ways. NowSecure studied the most popular apps on the Google Play store and found 16,036 high-risk issues among them. 

Trend Micro suggested some precautions to protect smart phones from malicious apps, such as properly configuring smart phones location and security settings, using the numeric PIN and password lock, being careful in accepting apps requests for personal or device information, and installing a mobile security application.