In order to prevent the entry of fake Android apps into the Play store, the search engine Google is constantly increasing its security. Google has also tied up with big security firms to find out these fake apps. In the same sequence, the White Ops Storey Threat Intelligence and Research team discovered 5,000 fake apps on 65,000 phones for conducting TERRACOTTA ad fraud operations. They offer free subscriptions, discounts on products, concert tickets, and other free gifts to install apps, which are illegal activities. Apart from this, these apps never fulfill their promises.
How do apps protect against the phone's security system As soon as users install these fake apps, they first modify their APK code. Due to this, these apps escape from the security system of the smartphone. After this, there is a glut of advertisements on the screen of users. You can guess the earnings of these fake apps through advertising, that in June 2020 alone, these apps posted 200 million advertisements to earn money from users' view impressions. Both the customers and advertisers are being fooled by the fraud done by these apps.
Fake apps caught like this The White Ops team detected the TERRACOTTA malware code and its hidden functionality in a file named index.android.bundle within the resource directory of the app. This information was given to Google by the team, after which these 5000 apps were immediately removed from the Play Store. It is believed that Google will tighten its policy against many apps like these. Apart from this, the company will also increase the speed of review of apps, so that these apps can be trimmed at the Play Store.
0 Comments