Google has pulled around 60 gaming apps from the Google Play Store after security organisation Check Point discovered they contained malicious code. Tagged AdultSwine, the code hides itself inside , many which are used by children.
The malicious apps have been downloaded between three million and seven million times so far, according to Google Play Store’s data.
According to Check Point, the malicious apps can cause damage in three ways: They display ads from the web that are often highly inappropriate and pornographic; they attempt to trick users into installing fake security apps, and they induce users to register to premium services at the user’s expense.
Check Point researchers said that apart from these current three main activities, the malicious code can use its infrastructure to broaden its goals to other purposes, such as credential theft.
Once the malicious app is installed on the device, it waits for a boot to occur or for a user to unlock his screen, upon which it initiates its malicious activity, they said.
The researchers said although the malicious app seems to be only a nasty nuisance for now and is certainly “damaging on an emotional and financial level”, they have a “potentially much wider range of malicious activities that it can pursue, all relying on the same common concept”.
