The web hides so many pitfalls that predicting them all would be impossible. The same thing also happens on the many reference stores for downloading applications and games. He would not have been immune to malware Google’s Play Store, at least according to some reports from the cybersecurity company Kaspersky.
In fact, the giant would have discovered that, using even newer and more devious techniques, the scammers would have managed to create viruses capable of overcoming even Google’s security checks. In this regard, Android users would have unintentionally downloaded only during 2023, malicious apps over 600 million times.
This is an abnormal number which is also significantly helped by the large number of contents present in the Play Store. This overcrowding makes it impossible even for a company like Google to carry out complete and in-depth control.
Malware downloaded over 600 million times from the Play Store during 2023, it’s an emergency
The technique used is clear: infiltrate an application that will only later be equipped with viruses and various dangers. Various contents have in fact been published within the Play Store such as legitimate and safe applications.
The ones who had a negative impact were the updates arrived later, loaded with malware and tangible dangers for users who had downloaded the contents. One of the first cases that Kaspersky studied concerns an application that goes by the name of iRecorder.
This first arrived in the Play Store in September 2021 and 11 months later brought a terrifying update. The update introduced the code of the famous virus into the app Trojan AhMythcapable of recording every 15 minutes from the microphone of each smartphone on which the application was installed.
Subsequently, all the recordings were sent to the server of the creator of iRecorder, who thus obtained a huge amount of sensitive data. They are also the many little ones games which can be dangerous, even estimated in 450 of the 600 million downloads which was discussed a little further above.
The most widespread, with a number of 35 million installations, were the Minecraft cloneswhich contained adware within them.