It is understandable that companies like Samsung would be keen on creating their own ecosystem. Locking customers into their ecosystem means that customers would be more likely to keep buying Samsung devices, and any commissions from the proceeds from app sales and in-app purchases would go directly to Samsung.
It sounds like a win-win situation, but the problem is that Samsung needs to spend resources to upkeep its app store to prevent malware from being distributed, which is a problem the company is currently facing. According to writer Max Weinbach, it has been discovered that the Galaxy Store is actually hosting several pieces of malware that are disguising itself as apps.
I gave Huawei shit for this, gonna do it to Samsung too.
Samsung is hosting literal malware on the Galaxy Store. Google's anti-virus protection software, built into Play Services, stops the install.
I've found at least 5 of these apps in a row on the Galaxy Store. pic.twitter.com/LiiDJtGwmb— Max Weinbach (@MaxWinebach) December 27, 2021
According to Weinbach, this includes apps like fake Showbox movie piracy apps that have somehow managed to pass reviews and were listed on the Galaxy Store. Thankfully though, users who have Google services installed on their phones are spared from any repercussions because it looks like while Samsung might have missed that these are malware, Google’s Play Protect spotted it and stopped the install.
Weinbach claims that he has discovered at least five of these apps back-to-back, meaning that there could be more than haven’t been found yet. Further investigation revealed that these apps are requesting permissions that an app like it wouldn’t normally request, like access to contacts, call logs, and telephone.
This isn’t to say that Google’s own Play Store is perfect, but with so many back-to-back discoveries, it seems that Samsung definitely needs to step up their review game.
Source: Android Police
Comments