Security News

Roid VPN apps that have gone through an independent security validation will now be able to claim that distinction on Google Play with a prominent badge in their Data Safety section. "We've launched this banner beginning with VPN apps due to the sensitive and significant amount of user data these apps handle," said Nataliya Stanetsky from Google's Android Security and Privacy Team.

Google is rolling out a new banner to highlight the "Independent security review" badge in the Play Store's Data safety section for Android VPN apps that have undergone a Mobile Application...

Google Play, Android's official app store, is now tagging VPN apps with an 'independent security reviews' badge if they conducted an independent security audit of their software and platform. Starting with VPN apps, which Google considers critical for user privacy and security due to handling sensitive data, the Play Store will display the "Independent security review" badge in the Data Safety Section.

Several malicious Google Play Android apps installed over 2 million times push intrusive ads to users while concealing their presence on the infected devices. Dr. Web explains that once victims install these apps on their devices, they hide by replacing their icons with that of Google Chrome or using a transparent icon image to create empty space in the app drawer.

Google has announced an update to its Play Protect with support for real-time scanning at the code level to tackle novel malicious apps prior to downloading and installing them on Android devices....

Google is enhancing Google Play Protect's real-time scanning to include code-level scanning, to keep Android devices safe from malicious and unwanted apps, especially those downloaded from outside of the Google Play app store - whether from third-party app stores or other sources. Google Play Protect, introduced by Google in 2017, is a security suite for Android devices that protects users' devices and data from malicious apps.

Google has announced new, real-time scanning features for Google Play Protect that make it harder for malicious apps employing polymorphism to evade detection. The problem is that authors of malicious apps promoted outside Google Play have resorted to AI and polymorphic malware that frequently alters identifiable information in a malicious program to bypass automated security platforms, making those scans ineffective.

Amazon mistakenly sent out purchase confirmation emails for Hotels.com, Google Play, and Mastercard gift cards to customers, making many worried their accounts were compromised. The emails were sent out last night, with customers reporting receiving three separate emails from Amazon Prime for each alleged gift card purchase.

An app with the name Signal Plus Messenger was available on Play for nine months and had been downloaded from Play roughly 100 times before Google took it down last April after being tipped off by security firm ESET. It was also available in the Samsung app store and on signalplus[. An app calling itself FlyGram was created by the same threat actor and was available through the same three channels.

At the time the researchers published their report, several malicious apps were still available for download through Google Play. The Telegram apps presented in Kaspersky's report are promoted as "Faster" alternatives to the regular app.