Stay informed on Google Play's latest information security updates, threats, and protections with in-depth news and expert analysis.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
Background for this topic.
Google Play is Google’s official distribution platform for Android applications and games. It also provides related controls, including app review, developer signing and release mechanisms, and Google Play Protect, which checks applications for known or suspected harmful behavior before and after installation. Its security role concerns the apps and updates delivered through the store, not the security of every Android device or application.
Security practitioners monitor Google Play because malicious, deceptive, repackaged, or vulnerable applications can reach users through legitimate-looking listings and request excessive permissions or collect sensitive data. Store review and automated scanning reduce exposure but do not guarantee that an app is safe; newly discovered vulnerabilities, compromised developer accounts, and harmful updates remain relevant attack surfaces. Defenders should assess an application’s provenance, permissions, requested data, update history, and vendor security response, while using Play Protect and device-management controls where appropriate. Google Play vulnerability and policy advisories can therefore inform application allowlisting, remediation, privacy reviews, and removal decisions.
Weekly headline count for the current query.
Researchers ran 281 of the most popular free VPN apps on the Google Play Store through a new testing system and found that many fail at the basics people install a VPN for, i.e., keeping their traffic private and secure
Security researchers at Zimperium's zLabs have documented a new Android banking trojan, Rokarolla, that targets 217 banking and cryptocurrency apps and packs 137 remote commands
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered fraudulent apps on the official Google Play Store for Android that falsely claimed to offer access to call histories for any phone number, only to trick users into joining a subscription that provided fake data and incurred financial loss
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new version of the SparkCat malware on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, more than a year after the trojan was discovered targeting both the mobile operating systems
A new Android malware dubbed NoVoice exploited known vulnerabilities to gain root access and has been distributed through more than 50 apps on Google Play Store, with at least 2.3 million downloads. [...]
A new Android malware named BeatBanker can hijack devices and tricks users into installing it by posing as a Starlink app on websites masquerading as the official Google Play Store. [...]
Several mental health mobile apps with millions of downloads on Google Play contain security vulnerabilities that could expose users' sensitive medical information. [...]
Google says that through 2025, it blocked more than 255,000 Android apps from obtaining excessive access to sensitive user data and rejected over 1.75 million apps from being published on Google Play due to policy violations. [...]
A newly discovered and sophisticated Android malware called Keenadu has been found embedded in firmware from multiple device brands, enabling it to compromise all installed applications and gain unrestricted control over infected devices. [...]
The remote access Trojan lets an attacker remotely control a victim's phone and can generate malicious apps from inside the Play Store.
A new Android malware-as-a-service (MaaS) named Cellik is being advertised on underground cybercrime forums offering a robust set of capabilities that include the option to embed it in any app available on the Google Play Store. [...]
Google will start taking action on Android apps in the official Google Play store that have high background activity and cause excessive battery draining. [...]
Zscaler estimates 239 malicious Android apps made it onto the official Play store over the past year
Hundreds of malicious Android apps on Google Play were downloaded more than 40 million times between June 2024 and May 2025, notes a report from cloud security company Zscaler. [...]
A massive Android ad fraud operation dubbed "SlopAds" was disrupted after 224 malicious applications on Google Play were used to generate 2.3 billion ad requests per day. [...]
Steganography, Mobile Marketing Attribution, Code Obfuscation Deployed for Ad FraudA cybercrime crew using Android mobile apps to conduct advertising fraud took unusual pains to hide its activity, concealing malicious code in downloadable digital images and holding off from infecting the subset of users who organically found their apps through the Google Play store.
Google is introducing a new defense for Android called 'Developer Verification' to block malware installations from sideloaded apps sourced from outside the official Google Play app store. [...]
Google is introducing a new defense for Android called 'Developer Verification' to block malware installations from sideloaded apps sourced from outside the official Google Play app store. [...]
Seventy-seven malicious Android apps containing different types of malware were found on Google Play after being downloaded more than 19 million times. [...]
Cybersecurity researchers have discovered a nascent Android remote access trojan (RAT) called PlayPraetor that has infected more than 11,000 devices, primarily across Portugal, Spain, France, Morocco, Peru, and Hong Kong