Security News

The Google Cloud security team acknowledged a common tactic known as versioning used by malicious actors to slip malware on Android devices after evading the Google Play Store's review process and...

Threat actors are leveraging a technique called versioning to evade Google Play Store's malware detections and target Android users. Earlier this May, ESET discovered a screen recording app named "iRecorder - Screen Recorder" that remained innocuous for nearly a year after it was first uploaded to the Play Store before malicious changes were introduced sneakily to spy on its users.

Sophos released new findings on CryptoRom scams—a subset of pig butchering schemes designed to trick users of dating apps into making fake cryptocurrency investments. Since May, Sophos X-Ops has...

Google is fighting back against the constant invasion of malware on Google Play by requiring all new developer accounts registering as an organization to provide a valid D-U-N-S number before submitting apps. Typically, malicious apps on Google Play are submitted for review without dangerous code or payloads, which are then fetched later via an update in the post-installation phase.

Two file management apps on the Google Play Store have been discovered to be spyware, putting the privacy and security of up to 1.5 million Android users at risk. These apps engage in deceptive behaviour and secretly send sensitive user data to malicious servers in China.

Security researchers discovered two malicious file management applications on Google Play with a collective installation count of over 1.5 million that collected excessive user data that goes well beyond what's needed to offer the promised functionality. The apps, both from the same publisher, can launch without any interaction from the user to steal sensitive data and send it to servers in China.

Three Android apps on Google Play were used by state-sponsored threat actors to collect intelligence from targeted devices, such as location data and contact lists. The malicious Android apps were discovered by Cyfirma, who attributed the operation with medium confidence to the Indian hacking group "DoNot," also tracked as APT-C-35, which has targeted high-profile organizations in Southeast Asia since at least 2018.

A new Android malware distributed as an advertisement SDK has been discovered in multiple apps, many previously on Google Play and collectively downloaded over 400 million times. In the background the trojan SDK checks the Android device's sensor data to confirm that it's not running in a sandboxed environment, commonly used by researchers when analyzing potentially malicious Android apps.

These apps have popped up in the Google Play and Apple App Store. "Scammers have and always will use the latest trends or technology to line their pockets. ChatGPT is no exception. With interest in AI and chatbots arguably at an all-time high, users are turning to the Apple App and Google Play Stores to download anything that resembles ChatGPT," said Sean Gallagher, principal threat researcher, Sophos.

A new Android subscription malware named Fleckpe has been unearthed on the Google Play Store, amassing more than 620,000 downloads in total since 2022. Kaspersky, which identified 11 apps on the official app storefront, said the malware masqueraded as legitimate photo editing apps, camera, and smartphone wallpaper packs.