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The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

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Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#4
This is why no matter how much Google brags about its machine learning-powered anti-malware protection, it can't rely solely on it to defend Android users, because it's still a cat and mouse game with sophisticated attackers. They need to find a way to patch all devices in a timely manner.

Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#5
I'm curious if anyone has a sense for how much they made from this? I just don't have a good sense for scale and dimensions of this.

If it went undetected for so long they must not have been at least somewhat conservative in their approach, so say 5mil DAU times 1 click a day at $0.25/click. So, million-ish dollars a day?

Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#6
post #2

Android is the new Windows. Expecting some downvotes. But truth must be told. You're welcome.

Part of the issue is how lax attitudes are in mobile development when it comes to security. There are probably dozens of top apps out there that have insecure command and control type setups

Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#7
post #3

There will always be bad actors, but I can't understand why Google tolerates low level malware. At least make them work a little.

This is the kind of malware that is difficult to block imo. As long as the auto clicking is done at a suitable interval, there really is no easy way to detect it.

The question is: would such an attack work on Apple devices? I'm assuming that the iOS API provides similar functionality to apps running on the device.

Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#9
post #7
post #3

There will always be bad actors, but I can't understand why Google tolerates low level malware. At least make them work a little.

This is the kind of malware that is difficult to block imo. As long as the auto clicking is done at a suitable interval, there really is no easy way to detect it. The question is: would such an attack work on Apple devices? I'm assuming that the iOS API provides similar functionality to apps running on the device.

I would expect the malware developers already to have targeted iOS if it were possible?

Re: The Judy Malware: Possibly the largest malware campaign found on Google Play

#10
post #2

Android is the new Windows. Expecting some downvotes. But truth must be told. You're welcome.

Not really the truth - Android apps are all sandboxed and have relatively little access.

In fact the only thing this oh-so-evil malware did was generate fake Google Ad clicks. Not really an offense against its users at all and it can be trivially uninstalled. I certainly wouldn't compare that to ransomware, DDoS botnets, search hijackers, etc that deeply nest themselves in your system and resist uninstallation so much that reinstalling the OS is often the suggested recovery option.

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