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More Malicious Apps Found On Google Play

Posted by Soulskill on from the if-you-built-it-they-will-come dept.

suraj.sun writes "We've seen quite a few Android malware discoveries in the recent past, mostly on unofficial Android markets. There was a premium-rate SMS Trojan that not only sent costly SMS messages automatically, but also prevented users' carriers from notifying them of the new charges, a massive Android malware campaign that may be responsible for duping as many as 5 million users, and an malware controlled via SMS. Ars Technica is now reporting another Android malware discovery made by McAfee researcher Carlos Castillo, this time on Google's official app market, Google Play, even after Google announced back in early February that it has started scanning Android apps for malware. Two weeks ago, a separate set of researchers found malicious extensions in the Google Chrome Web Store that could gain complete control of users' Facebook profiles. Quoting the article: 'The repeated discoveries of malware hosted on Google servers underscore the darker side of a market that allows anyone to submit apps with few questions asked. Whatever critics may say about Apple's App Store, which is significantly more selective about the titles it hosts, complaints about malware aren't one of them.'"

5 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Except by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >complaints about malware aren't one of them
    So the ones that raid your contacts and send the information to persons unknown are fine?

    1. Re:Except by PNutts · · Score: 5, Insightful

      >complaints about malware aren't one of them
      So the ones that raid your contacts and send the information to persons unknown are fine?

      No, but who could have imaged the apps below would harvest your contacts! It's almost like they were built specifically to share information.

      Foursquare
      Path
      Instagram
      Facebook
      Twitter for iOS
      Voxer

    2. Re:Except by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You finding an example of malware doesn't disprove the assertion that people are complaining about malware on the iOS App Store. Just as finding one criminal in the country's safest town wouldn't mean people are complaining about crime there.

      iOS App Store has a minuscule amount of malware compared to it's size. There's orders of magnitude more malware on the Android stores.

  2. It drives me crazy by Reed+Solomon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why can't they offer a vetting process for apps? Not everything needs the "Google seal of approval", but having a google verified or trusted apps icon appear on an app might alleviate some of the problems, or at least the perception of the google market store (I can't call it google play store, it's just stupid) being a haven for malware and cheap ripoffs.

    In fact, this could be a policy that a third party app store could institute. It would be interesting to see it happen, as they could potentially become more popular than Google's own store.

  3. Happening on App Store too by chrb · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "some of App Store's shiniest celebrities are among those that beam away your contact list in order to make hooking up with other friends who use the app smoother. " http://m.gizmodo.com/5885321/how-iphone-apps-steal-your-contact-data-and-why-you-cant-stop-it