Displaying items by tag: Google Play Store

As mobile devices continue to be a focus for attackers, we are hearing that there is new banking malware in the Google Play Store. The new malware belongs to a the SharkBot family and, according to researchers, is also a new generation thanks to included features found inside. The biggest difference between SharkBot and other banking malware is that SharkBot allows the developers to steal money in a highly automated fashion.

Banking malware for mobile devices is on the rise thanks to the ubiquitous use of mobile apps for personal financial tracking and transactions. This move was almost certain to attract threat actors like a moth to a porchlight. When given the gloriously poor state of mobile anti-malware and protection it is no wonder there are so many flavors of this popping up. What is even more disappointing, is the fact that we are seeing the malware packages pushed out through legitimate app stores.

Google has a bit of an issue with malware present in their Play Store as there are reports of another banking trojan targeting users of European banks. Currently, the malware called Xenomorph may have infected as many as 50,000 devices across 56 Banks, all though a malicious app located in the Google Play Store.

It is not hard to find false or malicious applications in Google's application store Play and every once in a while they get even more interesting. This time, they were applications that were made to look like they were from the iLife and iWork suites, whose editor was, neither more nor less than - Apple Inc..

Archos announced they will release a 7-inch Android tablet made primarily for gamers. Lately a lot of high quality Android games have come out and Archos hopes that this will be a trigger for their success. We also talked few days ago about the new console OUYA, that will be Android based, so it looks like the Android gaming market is starting to grow rapidly. Many would describe the Archos GamePad as like an XL PS Vita and we can agree that they have some similarities but let’s not mix apples and pears. The Archos GamePad will run on Ice Cream Sandwich, so we can expect it to be able to handle all of the latest games for Android. At launch it will run on Jelly Bean and will not get the upgrade until more games become compatible with it.

There is trouble in the Google Play Store as someone (Symantec) has discovered a Trojan downloader application that appears to be rather prevalent in the form applications masquerading as different applications (two of the most downloaded were Mario Brothers and GTA 3 Moscow City). The new malware appears to be concentrating on the Eastern European area right now as it utilizes premium SMS services that are tied to specific regions using certain numbers.