As a consequence of an investigation by security firm Check Point, Google has deleted 60 games from its Play Store. The games apps were infected with a malicious bug, displaying pornographic ads aimed at children. According to Google Play, its public data indicated that these games had been downloaded between 3 million and 7 million times.
The malware, which Check Point refers to as “AdultSwine,” attacked users with the pornographic ads, tried to trick them into installing fake security apps that were infected with malware, and make them register for a premium service using their phone numbers. After a download, the app only had to wait for the user to unlock the device or restart it before sending information back to a command and control server, which then instigates the malicious activity.
On the full list of affected apps released by Check Point, the most popular of them includes Five Nights Survival Craft, Mcqueen Car Racing Game, Addon Pixelmon for MCPE, CoolCraft PE, and Exploration Pro WorldCraft. However, Check Point didn’t explain how the malicious code found its way inside otherwise-innocuous apps, but it did demonstrate how the attack worked once the game was downloaded.
Google insists that it manually reviews ads and has strict category blocks to ensure children have a safe experience. And that the games apps that were affected aren’t part of the Google family program. In a statement to the Financial Times, a Google spokesperson said “We’ve removed the apps from Play, disabled the developers’ accounts, and will continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them. We appreciate Check Point’s work to help keep users safe.”
With several revelations of child-safety issue on YouTube, another Google-owned platform, it is important to start taking precautions. To help parents and guardians find age-appropriate content for their children, Google has a family collection on Play Store to do the trick. Also, Google does have a safety feature called Google Play Protect, which checks apps when you download them and periodically scans your device for harmful apps to remove them.
For the full list of affected apps, go here.