# How Spies Snuck Malware Into the Google Play Store -- Again and Again **URL:** \ **Category:** News & Articles\ **Tags:** hacking, business\ **Created:** [April 29, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272 "2020-04-29T02:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Astrid](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/astrid/32/174869_2.png) [@Astrid](https://onehack.st/u/Astrid)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 2:44am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/1 "2020-04-29T02:44:01Z")
![Google-Play-Malware](https://onehack.st/uploads/default/original/3X/d/6/d6bb30c1b4af92ca02500367b7ccf5c25b380e44.jpeg) Google’s Play Store for Android apps has never had a reputation for the strictest protections from malware. Shady adware and even banking trojans have managed over the years to repeatedly defy Google’s security checks. Now security researchers have found what appears to be a more rare form of Android abuse: state-sponsored spies who [repeatedly slipped their targeted hacking tools into the Play Store](https://www.wired.com/story/phantomlance-google-play-malware-apt32/) and onto victims’ phones. From a report: _At a remote virtual version of its annual Security Analyst Summit, researchers from the Russian security firm Kaspersky today plan to present research about a hacking campaign they call PhantomLance, in which spies hid malware in the Play Store to target users in Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and India. Unlike most of the shady apps found in Play Store malware, Kaspersky’s researchers say, PhantomLance’s hackers apparently smuggled in data-stealing apps with the aim of infecting only some hundreds of users; the spy campaign likely sent links to the malicious apps to those targets via phishing emails. “In this case, the attackers used Google Play as a trusted source,” says Kaspersky researcher Alexey Firsh. “You can deliver a link to this app, and the victim will trust it because it’s Google Play.”_ _Kaspersky says it has tied the PhantomLance campaign to the hacker group OceanLotus, also known as APT32, widely believed to be working on behalf of the Vietnamese government. That suggests the PhantomLance campaign likely mixed spying on Vietnam’s Southeast Asian neighbors with domestic surveillance of Vietnamese citizens. Security firm FireEye, for instance, has linked OceanLotus to previous operations that targeted Vietnamese dissidents and bloggers. FireEye also recently spotted the group targeting China’s Ministry of Emergency Management as well as the government of the Chinese province of Wuhan, apparently searching for information related to Covid-19._ ---
**Author:** ![Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/hyperdemongod/32/26170_2.png) [@Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/u/Hyperdemongod)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 5:20am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/2 "2020-04-29T05:20:21Z")
How to prevent ourself from downloading such apps?? @Astrid ---
**Author:** ![mydadsperm](https://onehack.st/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@mydadsperm](https://onehack.st/u/mydadsperm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 6:14am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/3 "2020-04-29T06:14:22Z")
stay away from free content ---
**Author:** ![Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/hyperdemongod/32/26170_2.png) [@Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/u/Hyperdemongod)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 6:25am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/4 "2020-04-29T06:25:10Z")
@mydadsperm Bro, what are saying?? Do you expect us to pay for each app and download them? I was simply asking whether there are any methods to detect them. ---
**Author:** ![mydadsperm](https://onehack.st/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ed655f/32.png) [@mydadsperm](https://onehack.st/u/mydadsperm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/5 "2020-04-29T17:02:37Z")
Our entire system is **rigged** , We must encourage `open source` system support the developers,but unfortunately ppl unaware of them. before downloading an app we need to gather information about them ie safe browsing with common sense ---
**Author:** ![Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/user_avatar/onehack.st/hyperdemongod/32/26170_2.png) [@Hyperdemongod](https://onehack.st/u/Hyperdemongod)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2020, 12:47am UTC](https://onehack.st/t/how-spies-snuck-malware-into-the-google-play-store-again-and-again/83272/6 "2020-04-30T00:47:47Z")
Yes..Agreed!👍💯