Pokemon GO has only officially launched in New Zealand, Australia, and the US, but we’re still waiting to see it released across the rest of the world.
This has led impatient Pokemon trainers in waiting across the globe to seek less than reliable sources to get hold of the game.
Of course, there are plenty of us who managed to get Pokemon GO early with no problems, but it’s entirely possible that some of the sites hosting early versions of the game come bundled with a few cheeky viruses.
Security researcher ProofPoint has already discovered one example of the Pokémon GO download bringing malware along for the ride that will run in the background when you install the game.
ProofPoint wrote in a news post:
ProofPoint researchers discovered an infected Android version of the newly released mobile game Pokemon GO. This specific APK was modified to include the malicious remote access tool (RAT) called DroidJack (also known as SandroRAT), which would virtually give an attacker full control over a victim’s phone.
It all sounds very dodgy, and something I’m sure we could all do without. Thankfully, there’s an easy way to see if you downloaded a clean version of Pokemon GO.
All you need to do is go to Settings > Applications > Pokémon GO and take a look at what permissions the app has been granted.
Below is an example of a healthy install (via Kotaku):
And if you see any of the permissions in the image below, you’ve got yourself a dodgy install and it’s time to get that fucker off your phone ASAP.
Even if you reckon you haven’t experienced any issues while playing Pokemon GO, I recommend you take a quick look to make sure everything’s above board.
It only takes a minute – then you get back to hunting Pikachu down the high street.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.