Android Reviews

Google ‘Bouncer’ tasked with taking on Android malware

Roughly 47 % of smartphone owners in the US use an Android telephone, according to the most latest figures from tracking firm comScore. A massive amount, obviously, and with it have come quite huge vulnerabilities, including a flood of Android malware. As we noted late last year, Android phones are the leading target for Web ne’er-do-wells in simple fact, in the 3rd quarter of 2011, practically all malware was directed correct at Android. 

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Enter “Bouncer,” a new service from Google. Bouncer, Google exec Hiroshi Lockheimer wrote in a website post today, is a sort of virtual guardian, which automatically scans the Android Marketplace, and notifies Google of any attainable malware. 

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Bouncer “looks for behaviors that indicate an software may be misbehaving, and compares it against previously analyzed apps to detect possible red flags,” Lockheimer explained. “We truly run each and every software on Google’s cloud infrastructure and simulate how it will run on an Android gadget to appear for hidden, malicious behavior. We also analyze new developer accounts to assist stop malicious and repeat-offending developers from coming back.” 

And there is evidence that Bouncer is currently operating – according to Lockheimer, the service, which has been active for several months, has led to “a 40% lessen in the quantity of probably-malicious downloads from Android Marketplace.” In other words, malware is still staying flung at the Android marketplace, but the new security program is retaining out at least some of it. 

And thank goodness for that, writes Dan Goodin of Ars Technica.

“For many years, critics have mentioned Google does not do sufficient to police its very own servers for apps that steal user information, rack up expensive charges, and carry out other undisclosed abuse,” Goodin notes. “Google’s guidelines for Android developers promise they have ‘complete management more than when and how they make their applications available to users.’ While several developers and consumers welcome the freedom, it has also permitted malware purveyors to install their titles on tens of 1000′s of Android phones.” 

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