Security News > 2021 > January > Google Boots 164 Apps from Play Marketplace for Shady Ad Practices

Google has removed 164 apps, downloaded a total of 10 million times, from its Google Play marketplace because they were delivering "Disruptive" ads, considered malicious.

The problem continues to plague Google despite numerous efforts by the company to prevent "Malicious developers" from submitting their apps to its Google Play marketplace.

Researchers discovered the offending apps mimicking legitimate apps to garner downloads, "Only to then trick the user into seeing a whole bunch of unexpected ads," researchers Gabi Cirlig, Michael Gethers, Lisa Gansky and Adam Sell wrote in a report published by WhiteOps Satori Threat Intelligence Team.

WhiteOps identified the 164 apps, calling them CopyCatz apps, because bulk of those identified attempted to mimic the functions of other popular apps - and spewed the obnoxious ads.

Google has struggled with bad apps delivering adware and other malware on Google Play for years, and has made significant strides to prevent threat actors from sneaking their rogue apps on Google Play.

Last February, Google deleted 600 apps for displaying the same type of behavior as the latest raft of apps that were deleted, and subsequently banned them from the store.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/google-boots-164-apps-from-play/163091/