Google Prevented 2.28 Million Malicious Apps from Reaching Play Store in 2023

Google on Monday revealed that almost 200,000 app submissions to its Play Store for Android were either rejected or remediated to address issues with access to sensitive data such as location or SMS messages over the past year. The tech giant also said it blocked 333,000 bad accounts from the app...

Rooting Malware Is Back. Here’s What to Look Out For.

Over the last several years, as the Android ecosystem matured, widely-distributed malware with rooting capabilities has become rare. But its rarity doesn’t mean it’s not still a threat. By definition, rooting malware is extremely dangerous because it can gain privileged access to the Android...

Agent Smith Malware Infects 25M Android Phones to Push Rogue Ads

Researchers are warning of a new breed of Android malware, dubbed “Agent Smith,” that they claim has infected 25 million handsets in order to replace legitimate apps with doppelgangers that display rogue ads. The malware is tied to a China-based firm, according to Check Point researchers, and is...

Post-Perimeter Security: Addressing Evolving Mobile Enterprise Threats

In the era of the cloud, enterprises house sensitive corporate data outside of the traditional perimeter; employees can access this from any endpoint, including mobile devices, and from any network. This presents a host of new challenges for companies looking to protect their sensitive informatio...

Don’t Trust Android OEM Patching, Claims Researcher

Many Android device manufacturers are not telling the truth when they say they have patched phone vulnerabilities in new updates, researchers found. Karsten Nohl and Jakob Lell, researchers with Security Research Labs, told Threatpost they have tested the firmware on close to 3,000 phones and fou...

Popular Android Phone Manufacturers Caught Lying About Security Updates

Android ecosystem is highly broken when it comes to security, and device manufacturers better known as OEMs make it even worse by not providing critical patches in time. According to a new study, most Android vendors have been lying to users about security updates and telling customers that their...

Google Play Boots 3 Fake Bitcoin Wallet Apps

Google moved quickly to kick three fake bitcoin wallet apps from its Google Play marketplace earlier this month after researchers at mobile security firm Lookout discovered them. The apps pretended to be legitimate bitcoin wallets, but instead were fake. Apps were designed to trick sellers to...

Google Touts Progress in Android Security in 2016

SAN FRANCISCO–Google has a daunting task of scanning 750 million Android devices daily for threats and checking 6 billion apps for malware each day as part of its management of 1.6 billion active Android devices. The numbers are staggering for Adrian Ludwig, director of Android Security; six year...

Harnessing the Power of an Android Cluster for Security Research

When the topic of mobile security comes up, users and researchers often discuss Android as if it’s one monolithic operating system like iOS is. But the fact is that there are nearly as many versions of Android as there are Android devices, which has led to plenty of confusion when it’s time to fi...