A study by the company RiskIQ claims that in 2011 there were only 11.000 malicious applications on Google Play, and that their number increased by 388% with 42.000 malware apps in 2013.
The company adds that Google only removed 23% of these apps in 2013, compared to 60% it removed in 2011. A whopping 12,3% of all apps on Google Play contained malware software in 2013, according to RiskIQ. Google has not yet made statements about its results researchs.
RiskIQ goes on to say that it came up with this data using technology that mimics real users interacting with Android apps, claiming that this way it was able to discover malware that normally wouldn't show up. Android personalization apps appear to be most used to cover malware, according to RisklIQ, followed by apps from the entertainment and education categories.
