Security News > 2023 > April > How much to infect Android phones via Google Play store? How about $20k

If you want to sneak malware onto people's Android devices via the official Google Play store, it may cost you about $20,000 to do so, Kaspersky suggests.

Before cybercriminals can share their malicious apps from Google's official store, they'll need a Play developer account, and Kaspersky says those sell for between $60 and $200 each.

Uploading straight-up spyware to the Play store for people to download and install may attract Google's attention, and cause the app and developer account to be thrown out.

The app may refuse to work as normal until the loader is allowed to do its thing, convincing marks into opening up their devices to crooks.

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To be clear, Google Play doesn't intentionally allow the sale of malicious apps on its store.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/10/kaspersky_google_play_malicious_apps/