google play
Google to flag Android apps with excessive battery use on the Play Store
Google will start taking action on Android apps in the official Google Play store that have high background activity and cause excessive battery draining. Apps that exceed a “bad behavior threshold” may be flagged on Google Play for negatively impacting battery performance and may affect their visibility in the Android ecosystem. Developers have until March 1, 2026, […]
Malicious Android apps on Google Play downloaded 42 million times
Hundreds of malicious Android apps on Google Play were downloaded more than 40 million times between June 2024 and May 2025, notes a report from cloud security company Zscaler. During the same period, the company observed a 67% year-over-year growth in malware targeting mobile devices, with spyware and banking trojans being a prevalent risk. Telemetry data […]
Google nukes 224 Android malware apps behind massive ad fraud campaign
A massive Android ad fraud operation dubbed “SlopAds” was disrupted after 224 malicious applications on Google Play were used to generate 2.3 billion ad requests per day. The ad fraud campaign was discovered by HUMAN’s Satori Threat Intelligence team, which reported that the apps were downloaded over 38 million times and employed obfuscation and steganography to conceal the […]
Google to verify all Android devs to block malware on Google Play
Google is introducing a new defense for Android called ‘Developer Verification’ to block malware installations from sideloaded apps sourced from outside the official Google Play app store. For apps on Google Play, there was already a requirement for publishers to provide a D-U-N-S (Data Universal Numbering System) number, introduced on August 31, 2023. Google says this has had a notable […]
Malicious Android apps with 19M installs removed from Google Play
Seventy-seven malicious Android apps with more than 19 million installs were delivering multiple malware families to Google Play users. This malware infiltration was discovered by Zscaler’s ThreatLabs team while investigating a new infection wave with Anatsa (Tea Bot) banking trojan targeting Android devices. While most of the malicious apps (over 66%) included adware components, the most common Android […]
New Android TapTrap attack fools users with invisible UI trick
A novel tapjacking technique can exploit user interface animations to bypass Android’s permission system and allow access to sensitive data or trick users into performing destructive actions, such as wiping the device. Unlike traditional, overlay-based tapjacking, TapTrap attacks work even with zero-permission apps to launch a harmless transparent activity on top of a malicious one, a behavior […]
Android malware Anatsa infiltrates Google Play to target US banks
The Anatsa banking trojan has sneaked into Google Play once more via an app posing as a PDF viewer that counted more than 50,000 downloads. The malware becomes active on the device immediately after installing the app, tracking users launching North American banking apps and serving them an overlay that allows accessing the account, keylogging, or automating transactions. According […]
Malware on Google Play, App Store stole your photos—and crypto
A new mobile crypto-stealing malware called SparkKitty was found in apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store, targeting Android and iOS devices. The malware is a possible evolution of SparkCat, which Kaspersky discovered in January. SparkCat used optical character recognition (OCR) to steal cryptocurrency wallet recovery phrases from images saved on infected devices. When […]
New Android malware uses Microsoft’s .NET MAUI to evade detection
New Android malware campaigns use Microsoft’s cross-platform framework .NET MAUI while disguising as legitimate services to evade detection. The tactic was observed by McAfee’s Mobile Research Team, a member of the App Defense Alliance dedicated to enhancing Android security. Although the apps McAfee observed target users in China and India, uncovering the attacks is important […]
Malicious Android ‘Vapor’ apps on Google Play installed 60 million times
Over 300 malicious Android applications downloaded 60 million items from Google Play acted as adware or attempted to steal credentials and credit card information. The operation was first uncovered by IAS Threat Lab, who categorized the malicious activity under the name “Vapor” and said it has been ongoing since early 2024. IAS identified 180 apps as part […]