The Promise of Curated Apps
March 17, 2022
It is much easier to describe something than it is to produce a thing that matches the slide deck. I am not sure if the information in “Vicious SharkBot Banking Trojan Discovered in Play Store Antivirus App” is spot on. The tip off for me is the description of malware as “vicious.” The metaphors of sharks, apps, and vicious don’t work, but I get the idea.
The main point of the write up strikes me as:
British IT security researchers discovered, an updated SharkBot is hiding inside an innocent-looking antivirus app which is still available on the Google Play Store as of Saturday.
The interesting function is that the malware includes a function which performs automatic transfers. The money is in an account until it is not.
How does one obtain the app? The write up alleges that one might visit the Google Play Store and download something called Antivirus Super Cleaner.”
If the story is accurate, one has to consider this question, “Who is the minder of the Google Play Store?” An intern, a snorkeling bit of smart software, a contractor obtained via Upwork, a full time employee looking for a lateral arabesque to a hot new project, no one, or some other mechanism?
Imagine. No one minding the store. A new approach to curation perhaps?
Stephen E Arnold, March 17, 2022
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