A particularly nasty strain of malware – “AdultSwine” – has infected up to 60 apps on Google Play Store, placing pornographic material on them. The majority of apps infected are aimed at children, and some have been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.

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The malware goes further, and promotes fake security programs to try and get people to sign up to expensive services.

Since being discovered by researchers from CheckPoint software, Google has removed all the compromised apps from the Play store and shut down the accounts of the developers that had created the code.

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In a statement Google added that it would “continue to show strong warnings to anyone that has installed them”.

Too late?

The researchers said that apps infected with the malicious code had been downloaded at least three million times.

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CheckPoint said AdultSwine was a “nasty nuisance” that was “most certainly damaging on both an emotional and financial level”.

Infected apps include add-ons for the popular pocket edition of Minecraft, as well as apps themed around Disney characters.

Warning to users

The researchers noted that the impact of this code has a “much wider range of malicious activities that it can pursue.”

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“The malicious code simply receives a target link from its Command and Control server and displays it to the user. While in some cases this link is merely an advertisement, it could also lead to whatever social engineering scheme the hacker has in mind.”

“Indeed, these plots continue to be effective even today, especially when they originate in apps downloaded from trusted sources such as Google Play.”