Security News > 2020 > January > Google Removes Trove of Risky 'Bread' Apps From Play Store
Google has removed roughly 1,700 unique applications from its Google Play app store that were part of a family of potentially unwanted programs.
Over time, the developers of the applications have focused on finding new cloaking and obfuscation techniques to evade Google Play Store's new policies and Play Protect's evolving defenses and remain undetected.
The 1.7k unique Bread apps were detected and removed from the Play Store before even being downloaded by users, Google says.
"Many of these samples appear to be designed specifically to attempt to slip into the Play Store undetected and are not seen elsewhere," Alec Guertin and Vadim Kotov, Android Security & Privacy Team, noted in a Jan 9 blog post.
Since the initial discovery, the Bread apps have switched from SMS fraud to WAP billing, following new Play Store policies restricting use of the SEND SMS permission.