I have the same issue, I think it must be an ADHD thing. I will literally take my medication, and a minute later look at the bottle wondering if I took it because I have no memory of taking it as I was distracted. Maybe I'll try this NFC thing out.

The attacks started in March and attempted to use the exploits to install a shell interface that allows devices to be controlled remotely.

I agree that it sucks, but it's most likely because 1) the app was removed for some policy reason, or 2) the app targets an older version of the Android SDK that you shouldn't install on newer devices for security reasons. I have some old apps I don't want to update that fall into both of these categories.

It would be nice if there was a non-official way to install these old apps, like if they were archived on archive.org or something similar.