New Android apps and updates did not appear on the Google Play Store on Monday, following a hacker attack on Google's app publishing system.
It's an outage that you probably won't notice – until you upgrade to the next update for Candy Crush, Plants v. Zombies or Clash of Clans. But the developers are furious.
The publishing system known as the Google Developer Console was disabled at noon on Sunday. Many app developers are still unable to upload apps and updates to the Google Play Store. Some developers, however, noted that the issue appeared to be resolved on Monday, but another post on Google's forums says that "the problem has started again."
Meanwhile, Android users will not have access to new apps and updates. Existing apps are still available for download.
Ibrahim Balic, a Turkish hacker, claimed responsibility for the attack. He said the developer's console "crashed" when he tried to examine a vulnerability he discovered.
Balic created an app to exploit the bug, which he expected to fail. But he said he didn't expect it to hit everyone, even offline.
Balic apologized to the developers for the inconvenience he caused.
