Google partnered with mobile security firms to clear Play Store of malware and malicious apps

In an effort to better protect the Play Store from malware and malicious apps, Google has announced that it has partnered with the cybersecurity firms ESET, Lookout and Zimperium to launch a new project called the App Defense Alliance. According to Google, the goal of the new project is to unify malware and threat detection …

Google announces Play Store policy to prevent intrusive Android apps accessing user call log and SMS data on devices

According to Google, only an app that has been selected as the phone’s default app for making calls or sending text messages will be able to access call logs and SMS data via the SMS and Call Log permissions. The new policy entered into effect yesterday. Android app developers have 90 days to update their …

New Fake finance apps impersonating six banks found Google Play store

Another set of fake finance apps has found its way into the official Google Play store. This time, the apps have impersonated six banks from New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Poland, and the Austrian cryptocurrency exchange Bitpanda. Using bogus forms, the malicious fakes phish for credit card details and/or login credentials to …

Android malware beats Google, returns to Play Store with just a name change

Google has recently acted tough to rid its app store of malware, however it’s apparent there’s still some work to do. Symantec recently discovered seven previously removed rogue apps that resurfaced on Google Play simply by using a new publisher and new app names. The apps coming in new titles that masqueraded as productivity apps …

Malicious crypto-mining apps with over 100,000 downloads found in the Google Play store

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have uncovered multiple android based malicious cryptocurrency-mining applications being distributed via the Google Play store, with the miners posing as games, sports streaming apps, and VPNs. Some of these have been downloaded more than 100,000 times. While the applications appear to provide legitimate functions, their real purpose is to secretly use …

More Password Stealing Android Apps With More Than 1 Million Downloads Found On Google Play Store

Two years ago in October 2015 Kaspersky published a blogpost about a popular malware that was being distributed from the Google Play Store. Over the next two years they detected several similar apps on Google Play, but in October and November 2017 the security software maker found 85 new malicious apps on Google Play that …

Google Playstore Harmed again, Massive ad scam stole millions through Android apps

Google is clamping down on a fraudulent advertising network of over 125 Android apps and websites that have stolen hundreds of millions in ad dollars. A BuzzFeed report laid bare the huge scale of the scheme, which saw scammers from “We Purchase Apps” acquire established apps from developers, transferring them to a web of front …

Apple culls “privacy” tool that stole users’ browsing history and sending it to China from App Store

The most popular “privacy” tool in Apple’s Mac App Store that was stealing users’ browsing history and sending it to China has been taken offline from the app store. Adware Doctor, that cost $5 as “privacy” tool with a long history of shady activity (including switching off users’ privacy protection!), whose reviews were a long …

Putin plays cat and mouse with Russian online critics

  MOSCOW (Reuters) – Before the Internet, Anton Nossik remembers painstakingly copying out Soviet dissident Joseph Brodsky’s forbidden writings on a clattering typewriter for samizdat publications. On his popular blog, the online media entrepreneur now instructs readers on ways to use new technology to get around online censorship, warning them: “There’s not much time left.” …