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Google Pulls 60 Apps From Play Store After Malware Exposes Kids To Porn (gizmodo.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the safe-guard dept.

Cyberthreat intelligence firm Check Point on Friday disclosed the existence of malicious code buried inside dozens of apps that displays pornographic images to users. Many of the apps are games reportedly geared toward young children. As a result, Google quickly removed the roughly 60 apps said to be affected from its Play Store. Gizmodo reports: While they appeared as such, the pornographic images displayed were not actually Google ads. Google supposedly maintains tight controls on all ads that appear in what it calls "Designed for Family" apps. The company also maintains a white-list of advertisers deemed safe for children under the ages of 13. None of the affected apps were part of Google's "Family Link" program, which is the category of recognized kid-friendly apps available across Google's platforms. The malware, dubbed AdultSwine, is said to have displayed the highly inappropriate images while also attempting to trick users into installing a fake-security app, or "scareware." After the fake "ads" were delivered, users would've received a "Remove Virus Now" notification, or something similar, designed to provoke users into downloading the scareware. The affected gaming apps included at least one which may have had up to 5,000,000 downloads -- Five Nights Survival Craft -- as well as many others which had between 50,000 and 500,000 downloads.

49 comments

  1. why i gotta click like 8 times for a list by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Five Nights Survival Craft
      Mcqueen Car Racing Game
      Addon Pixelmon for MCPE
      CoolCraft PE
      Exploration Pro WorldCraft
      Draw Kawaii
      San Andreas City Craft
      Subway Banana Run Surf
      Exploration Lite : Wintercraft
      Addon GTA for Minecraft PE
      Addon Sponge Bob for MCPE
      Drawing Lessons Angry Birds
      Temple Crash Jungle Bandicoot
      Drawing Lessons Lego Star Wars
      Drawing Lessons Chibi
      Girls Exploration Lite
      Drawing Lessons Subway Surfers
      Paw Puppy Run Subway Surf
      Flash Slither Skin IO
      Invisible Slither Skin IO
      Drawing Lessons Lego Ninjago
      Drawing Lessons Lego Chima
      Temple Bandicoot Jungle Run
      Blockcraft 3D
      Jungle Survival Craft 1.0
      Easy Draw Octonauts
      halloweenskinsforminecraft
      skinsyoutubersmineworld
      youtubersskins
      DiadelosMuertos
      Draw X-Men
      Moviesskinsforminecraft
      Virtual Family – Baby Craft
      Mine Craft Slither Skin IO
      Guide Clash IO
      Invisible Skin for Slither IO app
      Zombie Island Craft Survival
      HalloweenMakeUp
      ThanksgivingDay
      ThanksgivingDay2
      Jurassic Survival Craft Game
      Players Unknown Battle Ground
      Subway Bendy Ink Machine Game
      Shin Hero Boy Adventure Game
      Temple Runner Castle Rush
      Dragon Shell for Super Slither
      Flash Skin for Slither IO app
      AnimePictures
      Pixel Survival – Zombie Apocalypse
      Fire Skin for Slither IO app
      San Andreas Gangster Crime
      fidgetspinnerforminecraft
      Stickman Fighter 2018
      Subway Run Surf
      Guide Vikings Hunters
      Woody Pecker
      Pack of Super Skins for Slither
      Spinner Toy for Slither
      How to Draw Coco and The Land of the Dead
      How to Draw Dangerous Snakes and Lizards Species
      How to Draw Real Monster Trucks and Cars
      How to Draw Animal World of The Nut Job 2
      How to Draw Batman Legends in Lego Style

    1. Re:why i gotta click like 8 times for a list by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Some clear gaming of search algorithms here.

  2. Get a grip Google by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    You have hundreds of billions of dollars in cash. Do something with it. Fix your sh*t.

    1. Re:Get a grip Google by Major_Disorder · · Score: 1

      The kids have to learn about feltching somewhere...
      Just kidding. I am still trying to figure out how this makes them money though.
      1. Create kid themed app, that shows porn.
      2. ????
      3. Profit.

      --
      First law of people: People are generally stupid.
    2. Re:Get a grip Google by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have hundreds of billions of dollars in cash. Do something with it. Fix your sh*t.

      OMG, that might cost monies to fix! But seriously, google is just like all the other crappy companies (FB, twitter, snapchat, etc.). They don't actually want to monitor submissions to their services because:

      1. It would cost monies to hire staff to do the job
      2. It would make them possibly liable for bad stuff that gets submitted
      3. They really don't care

      Whaa, whaa, they all cry! We have too many submissions to manually check and our entire business plan rests on being able to publish shit without actually checking or being responsible for what is on our platform. Oh, and we just don't care so suck it.

    3. Re:Get a grip Google by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Parents see that followed by a virus warning. They install fake security software and then pay up.

  3. A true quarity experience... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    [example of fake ad from the article]

    "CLICK ALLOW TO GET THE NEW PIC'S [sic]"

    Available buttons: "Subscribe" and "Continue"

  4. Foul language in the news app also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right in the titles of the articles, the alternate form of "fiddlesticks" Google news is full of questionable news companies and i wish i could remove some.

    1. Re: Foul language in the news app also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Funny, i just realized that one of the offending news companies is referenced in this article.

    2. Re:Foul language in the news app also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Gizmodo is a blog, plain and simple. They pretend they're a news org but they are a bunch of bloggers who have a posting quota to fill. They have potty mouths and they are NOT news journalists.

    3. Re:Foul language in the news app also by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are just quoting the President.

    4. Re:Foul language in the news app also by godel_56 · · Score: 1

      They are just quoting the President.

      . . . who is just quoting Fox.

  5. Sounds like a delayed explosion... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wait until 5 million downloads and THEN deploy the malware.

    Brilliant! (twirls mustache)

  6. Re:amroid is bad cell phone by Fancy+Feast+Cat+Food · · Score: 0

    The Internet was MADE for things like watching Kaylani Lei get RAILED by some brothas almost to the point of pregnancy.

    Peace out.

  7. Evolution by jbmartin6 · · Score: 1

    I guess people are catching on to just the 'you have a virus' popup, so now they try to convince you there is a virus first.

    --
    This posting is provided 'AS IS' without warranty of any kind, implied or otherwise.
  8. Re: amroid is bad cell phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    actually youll find it is your mom who was made to be railed

  9. Google == no accountability by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Everything they put out is an unsupported piece of dreck.
    (Well, at least Gmail usually works!)

    No pride at all in their products, no oversight.
    If it's Google, there's an 80% chance it's junk.

  10. dumb by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1. Kids are dumb
    2. Video games are dumb
    3.

    1. Re:dumb by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

      That is a firm No to number 2.
      You haven't played BioShock, BioShock Infinite, Saints Row 3, FEAR, The YS series, Chrono Trigger, TLoZ series (Minus 2), or anything by Zeboyd.
      Those aren't dumb. Maybe Saints Row 3, but that kinda the point in that game.

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
  11. Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by DatbeDank · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Children do not need phones, let alone smartphones.

    I commonly see this weak excuse from parents claiming they, "want to know where their children are."
    Seriously? You're that bad of a parent that you haven't the foggiest idea where your kids are? Here was what my kid was like back in the late 90s and early 2000s.

    Wake up - take the bus to school - school - sports practice - ride home with family friends - home.

    Here's what a non-busy day looked like: wake up - bus- school - bus- home.

    Wow! It's like somehow I was in the immediate vicinity of a responsible adult at all times and my parents knew my safety was ok. Mind-blowing isn't it?

    And to think, flip phones were a thing at this time too. I didn't get my first phone until I got my first driver's license which at that time makes intelligent sense.

    Phones cost excessive amounts of money on top of a monthly contract. Why should I pay extra cash each month to have my kid screw around on social media and have easy accessibility to porn at my expense? I had to work to see porn when I was a teen. Today it's too darn easy!

    Parents these days are weak. Tell little Timmy and Tia no you're not getting a phone. It's that easy! If you really want to know where they are (going against my entire thesis here), get them a cheap flip phone. Yes, they still make them.

    My kid the other day (he's 7) asked for me an iPhone and I laughed at him. I said back to him, "How are you going to pay for it?"
    Ended that question really quick.

    1. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Children do not need phones, let alone smartphones.

      There are exceptions. Continuous glucose monitors for diabetics typically report their results via an iPhone app, for visibility to their health care providers or, especially for children, for visibility to their parents. Since a Type 1 diabetic can get pretty goofy when their blood sugar drops, it's been really helpful with my daughter's diabetes for her to carry an iPhone that reports for daily review of her blood sugars, and for sending alerts if she drops dangerously low or continues with a dangerously high blood sugar.

    2. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by jeff4747 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Back when I was a kid, my parents made sure I had enough change to use a payphone so that I could call them if I needed their help (picked up from random location, got lost, etc). Of course, we were also allowed to go places on our own instead of your "only school and home" model. I intend to let my kids have that freedom instead of chaining them to an adult at all times.

      Back then, payphones were pretty common. So they were an extremely workable option for a kid to summon mom and dad if needed. Payphones are basically gone now, so another option is required.

      My kid's getting a phone not to track them or other dumb shit like that. They're getting a phone because I'm not willing to make them rely only on the goodness of strangers if they need help.

      I can either go buy a flip phone for them to use, or I can hand them my already-paid-for smartphone when I decide to upgrade. Not exactly a difficult decision, since one requires leaving the house and the other requires saying "here ya go".

      As for porn and social media, why the hell are you on slashdot if you're unable to work the easily-available parental controls on the phone and your wireless account? You'll also be missing out on the "I'm proud but I have to punish you" moment when they break those controls.

    3. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > Children do not need phones, let alone smartphones.

      There are exceptions. Continuous glucose monitors for diabetics typically report their results via an iPhone app, for visibility to their health care providers or, especially for children, for visibility to their parents. Since a Type 1 diabetic can get pretty goofy when their blood sugar drops, it's been really helpful with my daughter's diabetes for her to carry an iPhone that reports for daily review of her blood sugars, and for sending alerts if she drops dangerously low or continues with a dangerously high blood sugar.

      It would be much better for that to be a stand alone device. Right now it's on a dangerous system which Apple and maybe others may have access to.

    4. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by DarkRookie · · Score: 1

      Need a Gameboy though. If not a phone then that.

      --
      The millennial that doesn't like most of the stuff designed for millennials.
    5. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      I commonly see this weak excuse from parents claiming they, "want to know where their children are."

      Quite the opposite. My child will have a smartphone because I don't intend to helicopter over them and it is valuable for them to have tools that allow them to do things like look up public transport timetables.

      Wake up - take the bus to school - school - sports practice - ride home with family friends - home.

      Yeah, you could have just said you don't have kids.

    6. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I commonly see this weak excuse from parents claiming they, "want to know where their children are."

      Quite the opposite. My child will have a smartphone because I don't intend to helicopter over them and it is valuable for them to have tools that allow them to do things like look up public transport timetables.

      Wake up - take the bus to school - school - sports practice - ride home with family friends - home.

      Yeah, you could have just said you don't have kids.

      Learn to read first before having kids.

      My kid the other day (he's 7) asked for me an iPhone and I laughed at him. I said back to him, "How are you going to pay for it?"
      Ended that question really quick.

    7. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Kjella · · Score: 2

      Wow! It's like somehow I was in the immediate vicinity of a responsible adult at all times and my parents knew my safety was ok. Mind-blowing isn't it?

      You must have been a dull kid. Me and my buddies, we were on our own a lot. Not neglect-like a lot, but shooting hoops at the local basketball court. Or going up to the nearby lake. Or collecting list golf balls at the local golf court and selling them back to golfers. Or walking my buddy's dogs. Or playing in the woods. We had a wrist watch and a time to be back. And we were back on time, because otherwise they'd really worry. And that was probably more control than my grandparents had over their kids. If your metric is safety and control, there's no doubt my parents had less. If there was a genuine emergency we didn't have a cell phone, not to call mum and dad, not to call 911, nothing. You could of course imagine all sorts of terrible things happening to us, but none of them did.

      What it did learn us was independence and responsibility. Of course the governing theory today is that you should fake it and secretly know where they are and what they're doing anyway while pretending not to. To me it seems like a scary proposition, because once you're caught doing it you've violated the trust you pretended to give and said I don't really trust you anyway. I know this happened with my mom and some money that disappeared from my wallet, I knew where it went because I repaid a friend for something, candy or whatever but clearly she didn't know that. She clearly knew I had less money today than yesterday though. And I was like WTF mom you're rifling through my pockets now? Maybe with age I can see that as an attempt at parenting but back then I didn't see it as anything but betrayal.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    8. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by jouassou · · Score: 1

      These days, if your kid doesn't have a phone, it inhibits their socialization at school. Kids used to arrange in person when they want to meet and play after school, or sometimes just show up and ring the doorbell — now they text each other on some messaging app to arrange stuff. Kids used to invite to their birthday parties by passing around a note in class, or just telling people in person when it was — now they use social media for that. Kids used to meet up much more often in person to socialize — now a large chunk of it actually happens online.

      I'm not saying it's a good thing, but it's just the way things are. It's like any other piece of technology, it starts out being optional, but after it becomes the norm, avoiding it comes at a cost. If you live somewhere everyone has a phone and a computer, good luck these days getting a job interview without a phone number or email address. If you live somewhere everyone has a car and a computer, you can't expect a variety of shops in walking distance from your house. Sometimes these things seem a bit like the good old "tragedy of the commons". It's becoming the same for kids and smartphones — when every kid has one, your kid loses out on something by being the only exception.

    9. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Me and my buddies, we were on our own a lot. Not neglect-like a lot, but shooting hoops at the local basketball court.

      Didn't your parent's see what happened to the Fresh Prince? How could they neglect you.

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    10. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      True and astute. The kids get devices from the school anyway (mandatory ipads). Putting your head in the sand and banning technology is not the solution, learn it. Even the stupid stuff like Echo (yuck).

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    11. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The norm in my area (in the Netherlands) is that kids get a phone (or a sim card for their phone) when they start going to school by themselves at 10 yrs old, because that is when they take their traffic exam. After that kids make play arrangements by themselves, and message home where they go. If you still helicopter over your kid after that, other parents will start asking about that (something wrong with your kid?).

      By the age of 14, kids will try to actively disable any monitoring of their phone use.

    12. Re:Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good thing then diabetes waited until the iPhone was invented, and an app created for monitoring it, before it started to become a problem.

  12. The First Experience by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The first experience of titillating images my generation experienced were those underwear sections of the mail order catalogs. The memories of discovering new things and places to touch! The kids these days get served much more efficiently.

  13. Re: amroid is bad cell phone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So this is what Creimer has come to? Posting affiliate link porn vids on slashdot?

    Smh.

  14. sounds like a shared package was corrupted by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 1

    No way all these companies decided to serve porn to kids at the same time.

    Some package they all use was corrupted.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  15. You can't see naked people in games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But you can shoot and kill people. That's OK.

    1. Re: You can't see naked people in games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is a kid being presented a photo of someone eating cum out of a prolapsed, gaping asshole cool with you too? Why not?

      The Internet has really raised the bar on porn imagery you might come across.

    2. Re: You can't see naked people in games by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, *you* saw it and you turned out okay, right?
      I mean, I assume you turned out okay. What's this weird fascination you have with felching, anyway?

  16. The real shocker here... by VeryFluffyBunny · · Score: 1

    ...is that these corporations are allowed to push advertising to children. Either ban advertising to children outright, i.e. They're not yet responsible enough to make informed decisions and can be easily manipulated, or allow all children to vote in local and general elections: Paw Patrol party forms a new coalition government with the My Little Pony Party, anyone?

    --
    Debate is a form of harassment. Do not question my truth.
  17. Kids are lucky these days by jwhyche · · Score: 3

    Kids have it so easy these days. I remember we had to wait till the end of the month then go dumpster diving in the middle of the night when I was a kid to get our porn. That was when the gas station down the road would throw out all its unsold playboys and hustlers.

    Now all they have to do is download the crappy app and get bonus porn. Kids are so lucky these days.

    --
    I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
    1. Re:Kids are lucky these days by gweihir · · Score: 2

      And that is just it: Kids old enough to be interested will get porn anyways, the others just do not care. The whole panic about this makes absolutely no sense. And there is nothing parents can do about it except teach their kids to hide things from them. Not good.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    2. Re:Kids are lucky these days by jwhyche · · Score: 2

      While I meant my post in jest, you do have a point. Our society does seem to be anal about protecting the little kiddies from seeing any boobies. I read a post a few days ago about a parent who wouldn't let her kid see Deadpool because it had a 5 minute sex scene in it. But she seemed to have no issue with body parts flying all over the place.

      --
      I read at +2. If your post doesn't reach that level I will not see or respond to it.
  18. Norway by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Norway, advertising targeted towards children is illegal by law, including e.g. advertisements for toys. (Other illegal advertisements in the country include gambling, alcohol, and tobacco.)

  19. Re: amroid is bad cell phone by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

    shit happens...get over it. talk to the parents of the kids...yeah. right.

  20. Re: Easiest Solution: Kids Do Not Need Smart Phone by DatbeDank · · Score: 1

    Classic reply of a bad parent, "But think of the kid's socialization!"

      If their friends don't invite them to a party because of a lack of a phone, they're bad friends plain and simple.

    Secondly, how the hell are these kids supposed to get to these parties? Drive a car? They're 12 year olds and no, I don't live in a major city where public transit is viable. My kids' friends live scattered all over the town I live in.

    Stop being weak and do some parenting FFS. No wonder kids are a mess these days.