Researchers Find Google Play Store Apps Were Government Malware

Motherboard has also learned of a new kind of Android malware on the Google Play store that was sold to the Italian government by a company that sells surveillance cameras but was not known to produce malware until now. Lukas Stefanko, a researcher at security firm ESET, who specializes in Android malware but was not involved in the Security Without Borders research, told Motherboard that it’s alarming, but not surprising, that malware continues to make its way past the Google Play Store’s filters. (Image: Security Without Borders)

Finally, an eSurv employee explained in a resume publicly available through his LinkedIn page that as part of his job at the company, he developed “an ‘agent’ application to gather data from Android devices and send it to a CC server”—a technical, albeit clear, reference to Android spyware.

Source: motherboard.vice.com