Google boosts security in the Android market

by Swati on February 3rd, 2012

Google has just announced the details of a new tool that the company has been using, to scan new apps and effectively deal with malware-infected apps in its Android store.

“Device activations grew 250% year-on-year, and the total number of app downloads from Android Market topped 11 billion. As the platform continues to grow, we’re focused on bringing you the best new features and innovations – including in security,” Hiroshi Lockheimer, VP of Engineering, Android, writes in a post on the Google blog.

The new tool called Bouncer is a security service that helps Google scan new apps as developers load them onto Market.  The tool provides automated scanning of Android Market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience of Android Market or requiring developers to go through an application approval process. Once an application is uploaded, the service immediately starts analyzing it for known malware, spyware and trojans. It also looks for behaviors that indicate an application might be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible malicious behavior.

Google noticed a 40 percent drop in the number of potentially malicious downloads from Android Market, with the implementation of Bouncer.

“While it’s not possible to prevent bad people from building malware, the most important measurement is whether those bad applications are being installed from Android Market – and we know the rate is declining significantly,” Lockheimer adds.

In addition to using new services to help prevent malware, Lockheimer pointed out that the existing features of Android work towards limiting malware. For instance, the ‘sandboxing’ feature places a virtual wall between various software on a device, to prevent rogue apps from taking data from legitimate apps. Permissions is another Android function that lets people decide what information on their mobile device can be accessed by a newly downloaded app.

The Android operating system is more prone to malware. While Apple has a dedicated team checking apps for malware before they appear in its App Store, Google has no similar setup, and relies solely on analytical tools such as the recently introduced Bouncer to check for malware.

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