The fact that a fake application is able to achieve around ten million installations is, unfortunately, neither new nor shocking news. But it is another demonstration that here Google should do something to solve what has been commented on for a long time: the lack of security of the Play Store.
The fake app that makes you pay for something that is free
CSIS Security Group has published an article about a fake application called Updates for Samsung. This app was intended to facilitate the process of updating firmware and software on Samsung Android devices.
To do this, the application promised to group all the updates in a single place to facilitate the user's work. The reality then is that it only made a "call" to the Samsung update domain and, despite starting the download, it never finished downloading them for installation. At that moment it was when the option of pay for a premium plan to finish doing it. By 34,99 dollars per year, the ads of the application itself were removed and a higher download speed was achieved.
As you can imagine, everything was false except for the charge. Because as they say, after making a payment that was not made through the payment gateway that the Google store offers and should use, the application did nothing. If all this were not enough, the application itself offered other functions such as unlocking the terminal to use with any operator. Therefore, although the total payment is not excessive, if a small percentage of those ten million could pay then it is a lot of money.
However, beyond an application like this one that has stood out above other similar and equally useless, the problems here are several. On the one hand, there is the issue of updates. The lack of information and a somewhat simpler process on the part of the manufacturers mean that inexperienced users end up in the Play Store looking for a solution that, normally, they have directly in Settings -> About phone -> Software update.
If the different brands added their own app to check whether or not there are updates, it would be solved. However, as we said, the other and big problem is on the roof of Google.
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The Play Store, as has been verified on many other occasions and is still seen now, does not reach desired security levels. There are still many apps that abuse the rules, that perform actions as basic as opening an address in an integrated browser but that display many ads to monetize the user's ignorance.
It is true that attacking and removing the hit problem is not easy due to the very nature of Android. The possibility of install external APKs to the store is an advantage as long as you know what you are doing. If not, then installing an app that shows you ads or tries to charge you for something free would be the least of your problems.
For all this, you as a user are the only remedy for the situation of the Play Store. When installing or looking for something that the manufacturer should offer, it is important that you find out about what you want or are going to run on your phone . A task that would last a few minutes and would save you future headaches.