May was something of a confusing month for Android users. It started well, with a raft of exciting new updates, but by the end of the month everything seemed to have slipped backwards again, with Apple’s iPhone moving even further ahead., much of which was presented at its I/O event.
In reality, Google has been erecting ever higher fences around Play Store for years, and has slowly, subtly started to steer users away from the third-party stores that made Android so different to iPhone towards Play Store and its Protect shield. The Anatsa threat has remained broadly consistent, albeit Zscaler notes its US focus as well as UK/Europe, and that it is also now infecting users in Asia. Anatsa targets phones by way of a seemingly clean app, but one which is in fact a dropper that connects to an external server and pulls malware onto the device. “This strategic approach enables the malware to be uploaded to the official Google Play Store and evade detection.