Google removed a whole host of ‘creepware’ from the Play Store
Last year Google removed 813 “creepware” apps from the Play Store after the company received a report from a group studying apps similar to stalkerware.
The group, which was made up of academics and researchers from NYU, Cornell Tech and NortonLifeLock, has published a new paper based on their research titled “The Many Kinds of Creepware Used for Interpersonal Attacks”.
While similar, creepware differs from both spyware and stalkerware due to the fact that these mobile apps lack some of the features used to spy on users. However, creepware can still be used to directly or indirectly stalk, harass, defraud or threaten another person online.
To identify creepware more effectively, the research team developed an algorithm named CreepRank that is able recognize these kinds of apps and assign a creep score to each one. CreepRank has the ability to identify apps with features that can be abused to extract SMS messages from a device, spoof another user’s identity in chats, launch denial-of-service attacks, hide other apps, track location and more.
Searching for creepware
In order to find creepware apps in the real world, the research team ran CreepRank on a sample of anonymized data, provided by NortonLifeLock from devices running Norton Mobile Security, from apps installed on over 50m Android smartphones.
The CreepRank algorithm then calculated a creep score for each app and the researchers ranked these apps to find out which ones could be abused to track or harass users. By analyzing the top 1,000 apps based on their creep score, the researchers found that 857 of them qualified as creepware. To make matters worse, the creepware functions took a central role in these apps and some even promoted these features in their marketing.
The researchers then applied the CreepRank algorithm to app data sets from 2017, 2018 and 2019 to discover 1,095 creepware apps that accounted for more than 1m installs across real-world devices. Following its discovery, the research team notified Google about these 1,095 apps last summer and the search giant’s security team took down 813 of them for violating the terms and conditions of the Play Store.
Dangerous Android apps can pose a significant security and privacy risk to users but thankfully Google has made a concerted effort to rid the Play Store of bad apps.
Via ZDNet
Last year Google removed 813 “creepware” apps from the Play Store after the company received a report from a group studying apps similar to stalkerware. The group, which was made up of academics and researchers from NYU, Cornell Tech and NortonLifeLock, has published a new paper based on their research…
Recent Posts
- Google’s AI plans now include cybersecurity
- Microsoft ramps up plans to capture carbon from burning wood
- How to Watch the Boeing Starliner Launch
- This Windows 11 installation setting can cut your SSD performance in half. Here’s how to disable it.
- Rare Magic: The Gathering card breaks records with $3 million sale
Archives
- May 2024
- April 2024
- March 2024
- February 2024
- January 2024
- December 2023
- November 2023
- October 2023
- September 2023
- August 2023
- July 2023
- June 2023
- May 2023
- April 2023
- March 2023
- February 2023
- January 2023
- December 2022
- November 2022
- October 2022
- September 2022
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- December 2011