From infosecurity-magazine.com
Dozens of Minecraft-like mobile games downloaded by tens of millions of users from Google Play actually contained covert adware, McAfee has revealed.
The security vendor discovered a total of 38 games with titles like Block Box Master Diamond, Craft Monster Crazy Sword and Craft Rainbow Mini Builder, which were installed by at least 35 million users worldwide.
Detected by McAfee as Android/HiddenAds.BJL, the adware in question loads ads in the background, hidden from the user, in order to generate revenue.
“One of the most accessible [types of] content for young people using mobile devices is games. Malware authors are also aware of this and try to hide their malicious features inside games,” explained McAfee security researcher, Dexter Shin.
“Not only is it difficult for general users to find these hidden features, but they can easily trust games from official stores such as Google Play.”