Hackers Using Minecraft Modpacks To Distribute Malware On Android Devices. If you play on an Android device, be aware that hackers are now exploiting Minecraft’s popularity to install adware on systems.
If you’re an avid gamer, you’re almost certainly at least passingly familiar with Minecraft, and you may be an active player. Despite its blocky, simplistic graphics, Minecraft is the most popular game of all time and is all over the internet.
Hackers are doing this by finding ways around Google’s strenuous checks and getting fake Minecraft Modpack apps on the store.
Name recognition alone has lured more than a million people to install these poisoned Minecraft mods apps. The poisoned apps are empty shells that don’t include any Minecraft mods but instead installs annoying adware. The increased ads make using your Android device virtually impossible, thanks to the endless parade of full-screen advertisements that pop up as often as every two minutes. Every ad displayed puts money in the attackers’ pockets.
Detection
Researchers at Kaspersky detected the operation, but it took a while because the hackers used bots to give their Minecraft mods apps fake five-star reviews, which served to counter the understandably low rankings from actual users.
To add insult to injury, merely deleting the poisoned Minecraft mods app from your menu screen won’t remove the adware. To do that, you have to take the time to go into the Apps menu under device settings, which is a step that users often overlook. That means even after a user deletes the offending app (or thinks he has), ads continue to be displayed, making the attackers even more money.
Once Kaspersky discovered the campaign, Google took swift action and removed the Play Store’s offending Minecraft mod packs. However, If you’re a fan of the game and you see an excessive number of ads recently, this is quite likely the reason why.
