Android smartphone users have been steadily subjected to a wide range of risks, including fake software, ransomware, adware, and more.
What’s going on?
Over the past few weeks, several bogus apps that claim to be connected to Minecraft and other educational games have been seen targeting Android users across the globe.
More than 20 fake Minecraft modpacks have been found on Google Play, producing violent ads. The most successful of these had more than one million installs.
Just a few days ago, seven Android smartphone applications were discovered to trick Minecraft and Roblox fans, charging them hundreds of dollars for game skins, wallpapers, and game mods for Minecraft and other games at premium rates. Five of these apps had more than one million downloads each.
Latest waves of threats against malware
Android users have experienced a variety of waves of multiple malware attacks in the last few weeks.
1. A recent surge of Wroba Trojan attacks has been observed targeting Android smartphone users in the United States and Asia.
2. Gravity, which previously concentrated only on Windows computers, has been further improved by its authors’ ability to reach Android and macOS users.
3. The Do Not APT threat community was found to be exploiting the Google Firebase Cloud Messaging Server for C&C contact with its latest Android malware loader named Firestarter.
Additional disclosures
According to recent studies by Symantec, the Google Play Store has been described as the primary source of malware on Android devices.
The research covered over 7.9 million unique Android applications that have been installed more than 34 million times.
According to the report, about 67 percent of the malicious software installations come from the Google Play Store.
