Google House-Cleaning with Google Play Store; 29 Malware Apps 'Kicked to the Curb'

[dgstorm]

Google went on a spree recently with some Google Play Store house cleaning. They found 29 malicious apps and "kicked them to the proverbial curb." These apps were identified by Symantec, and apparently, collected email addresses and phone numbers after being installed. Here's a quote with a few more details,

The first app appeared in the store as early as February. The first deployment was embedded into a variety of different types of app ranging from contact managers to diet assistance. Proving unpopular, the developers released a second round. The second wave all had titles that ended in “the Movie”, and played a video about popular Japanese video games. These apps were installed an estimated 70,000 to 300,000 times. Essentially, the app would simultaneously download the user requested movie while uploading the user’s contact list to a remote server.

Joji Hamada from Symantec said, “According to Yomiuri Online, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has begun investigating this incident and is attempting to track down the developers.”

It's nice to see them taking care of things, although it makes you wonder how many they don't find...

Source: PhoneArena

 

[dandroid]

That's good to see. I think they should have an entire department dedicated to keeping the marketplace safe.

 

[dgstorm]

That's good to see. I think they should have an entire department dedicated to keeping the marketplace safe.

Indeed. Perhaps it will take a big malware upset for them to make that happen, or maybe they already have something like that in place, but its just a small team right now...