Researchers report >4,000 apps that secretly record audio and steal logs
Found on Ars Technica on Saturday, 12 August 2017
A single threat actor has aggressively bombarded Android users with more than 4,000 spyware apps since February, and in at least three cases the actor snuck the apps into Google's official Play Market, security researchers said Thursday.
The report from Lookout is the latest reminder about the risks of installing apps from third-party markets, but they also make clear that limiting sources to Google Play are no guarantee an app is safe.
An operating system should by default access to devices so that the user has to grant them first. That's not a perfect solution, but it would make some wonder why their new cool flashlight app wants access to the network, the phonebook, your notes and everything else.