Over 1.4M apps blocked on Google Play, new malware spread via Android games

Google has prevented the publication of 1.43 million bad apps to the Play Store, as well as prohibited 173,000 bad accounts through Play Integrity API and Obfuscated Account ID last year, compared with 1.2 million apps and 190,000 bad accounts blocked in 2021, reports The Hacker News. More than $2 billion in fraudulent Play Store transactions have also been averted with Voided Purchases API, while its App Security Improvements program has helped addressed nearly 500,000 security vulnerabilities across almost 300,000 apps with approximately 250 billion cumulative downloads, according to Google. Moreover, unnecessary permission access has also been prevented across nearly 500,000 apps during the last three years. However, nearly 35 million users in the U.S. and other parts of the world were found to have installed 38 malicious Minecraft-spoofing games, which contain the HiddenAds malware, a report from McAfee's Mobile Research Team showed. "One of the most accessible content for young people using mobile devices is games. Malware authors are also aware of this and try to hide their malicious features inside games," said McAfee.