Report Identifies the Most Dangerous Mobile App Store on the Internet

9Game.com, a portal for downloading free Android games, was the mobile app store hosting the most malicious apps in 2019. From a report: 9Game ranked number one on the list of app stores with the most "new" malicious app uploads, but also number one on the list of app stores with the highest concentration of malicious apps overall. According to RiskIQ's 2019 Mobile App Threat Landscape report, 61,669 new malicious apps were uploaded on 9Game in 2019. In this ranking, 9Game was followed at a considerable distance by the official Android app store -- the Google Play Store -- with 25,647 new malicious apps. Completing the top 5 are Qihoo 360's Zhushou store, the Feral app store, and Huawei's Vmall app store. But while the Play Store ranked second on the list of new malware uploads, its sheer size diluted the impact these malicious apps had on Android users. The Play Store didn't rank at all in the top 5 app stores with the highest concentration of malicious apps, which included (1) 9Game, (2) the Feral app store, (3) the Vmall app store, (4) the Xiaomi app store, and (5) Qihoo 360's Zhushou store.

Absolute vs relative

[bickerdyke]

It's probably not that much of a difference for the other stores, but those 25000 new malicious apps spread out over how many apps in total? A proper ranking probably should compare that too.

Re:

[ElectronicSpider]

I find it funny that the most dangerous hosts exclusively games, understandable as kids playing videogames aren't going to spend a femtosecond thinking about cybersecurity, I wonder how many of those games appear on the proper playstore.

Re:

[shmlco]

They probably ALL appear on the Play Store. These are just malware laden ripoffs copied over to another store so they could be downloaded for free instead of having to pay a couple of bucks for a 'friggin game.

For some reason, I find that I lack sympathy in this regard....

Re: Absolute vs relative

[Cmdln Daco]

Some of us actively look for games and apps that cost a dollar amount. They are less prone to be malware laden with microtransactions.

Re:Absolute vs relative

[GameboyRMH]

Came to see if F-Droid was the safest, doesn't seem to be included in the report (original is paywalled), leaving disappointed.

Re: Absolute vs relative

[aRTeeNLCH]

Let F-Droid stay under the radar. Drop them a couple of bucks a year, and perhaps to the makers of your favourite apps, and let others bother with high profile stores.

Re:

[Aighearach]

I haven't found any malicious apps on F-Droid.

Re:

[LordWabbit2]

I haven't found many apps on F-Droid. FTFY

Re:

[Aighearach]

Oh, it has apps, just not many appy apps for appers.

I also didn't see the Samsung store listed

[bobstreo]

but they only had 9 others.

Shocking

[NateFromMich]

You mean you can't trust random free shit on the internet?
What is the world coming to?

Re:

[Jahta]

You mean you can't trust random free shit on the internet? What is the world coming to?

Indeed. Who knew that something called "the Feral app store" might be a source of malware! :-)

Facebook? Twitter? Google?

[BrendaEM]

Ignore the giants that have been spying on everyone, causing civil unrest, and changing the balance of power in our nations.