How did 239 malicious apps end up on Google Play Store?
It’s part of a huge rise in malware targeting Android devices
If a high-street store was caught selling a couple of hundred faulty products that were found to steal your money, the resulting loss of trust would probably bankrupt it. Yet the revelation that 239 malicious apps were listed on the Play Store – and had been downloaded 42 million times – will do little to dent Google’s popularity.
The apps were discovered by US security firm Zscaler between June 2024 and May 2025 (www.snipca.com/56975). It only named a handful, but said many were listed in the Tools category of the Play Store, masquerading as apps to boost productivity: file managers, document scanners, calculators, converters, to-do lists and junk cleaners.