A new RiskIQ shows that the number of blacklisted mobile apps increased by 15% between Q4 of 2018 and Q1 of this year. However, Google is increasingly successful at barring malicious Android apps from its official app store, resulting in a 64% decrease of blacklisted apps hosted on Google Play between Q3 of 2018, and Q1 of 2019. Despite this, Google Play still hosted the majority (58%) of all blacklisted apps least year.
As uploading malicious applications to Google Play gets harder, threat actors increasingly try to distribute their malicious apps via third-party app stores such as 9Game (19% of total) and Vmallapps (9% of total). The researchers warn that nearly every app (96%) on 9Game and almost one-third (30%) of apps of Vmallapps is malicious.
Read more: Cyber-Risks Hiding Inside Mobile App Stores
