Google Play Store Malware Apps Gets Deleted

Google has had a difficult time in making their app store clean from malicious apps. And this is because this month they’ve been dealing with over 50 apps that were infected with malware.

Check Point Software found out that more than 50 Android apps on Google Play Store were malicious. These apps would send fraudulent SMS messages in order to charge users for fake some services.

These apps followed the example from the ExpensiveWall which is a malware photo app that has infected a lot of users this year. Google has removed those apps which were malicious after they were announced by Check Point about them and right after that a new malicious app appeared infecting over 5,000 Android devices before having been removed by Google.

Another security advisor, Trend Micro found a new type of BankBot which would steal user credentials to get to online bank accounts. These versions aimed at users who were costumers of 10 banks from the United Arab Emirates. Before being removed it was already downloaded up to 10,000 times.

Google Play Store Kept on Facing Malware Issues

The ExpensiveWall app used a method through which malicious content was effectively hidden from anti-malware protections that were integrated into Google Play Store. The app would steal data from the users’ phone and could also spy on them.

Earlier in April there were other alerts on a spyware tool that posed as a system update and another app which posed as an official Play Store app and it would interfere with the users’ banking. PhishLabs discovered in the same month other 11 Android Apps that were posing as payment apps. Later in May Check Point researchers found other apps that tricked users to keep clicking on add-ons.

In order to improve security Google added to their mobile Play Store an antivirus which is always on in order to protect users from malware by scanning all the apps which have been uploaded to Play Store.