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Are you an Android phone user? If so, you could be one of the more than 560,000 users who recently downloaded a malware-filled Google Play app, according to TechSpot. Yep. You read that correctly. On November 19, a security researcher named Lukas Stefanko announced on Twitter that he had discovered 13 Android game apps that were actually carefully disguised malware and that more than half a million users had already downloaded them.
According to Stefanko, all the apps in this particular security breach were car simulator games with names like “Truck Cargo Simulator.” All 13 were developed by someone going by the name of Luiz O Pinto and averaged decent reviews in the Google Play store, which are now assumed to be paid and/or fake.
What users saw when they tried to play these games was a “Made with Unity” logo, followed by the app immediately crashing and the icon seemingly disappearing, making it harder to delete the app from phones. But these apps turned out to be more than just buggy annoyances. Instead, they were surreptitiously downloading an APK (Android application package) called “Game Center” as well as installing additional malware.
According to TechCrunch, there isn’t a consensus among malware scanners on what the malware actually does at this point. However, it says that the malware will launch every time an Android device starts up, allowing the malware creator to have “full access” to its network traffic, which could easily lead to data theft.
The good news: All 13 apps have since been pulled from the Google Play store due to violation of Google’s policies, according to Google spokesperson Scott Westover.
The bad news: This this isn’t the first time Google has had to deal with issues in its Google Play store. According to TechCrunch, more than 700,000 malicious apps had to be removed from the store in 2017.
In response to these multiple security breaches — including the Google+ user-data fiasco, which led to its demise — Google announced that it began an effort dubbed “Project Strobe” earlier this year. According to the company this so-called “root-and-branch” review looked at third-party developer access to Google accounts and Android device data.
The company says it will roll out additional controls and update policies in the coming months.
