In an effort to better protect the Play Store from malicious software and malicious apps, Google has announced a partnership with cybersecurity companies ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium to launch a new project called the App Defense Alliance.
According to Google, the objective of this new project is to unify the malware and threat detection engines to improve the security analysis that Android applications must perform before being published on the Play Store.
Currently, when a developer submits an Android app to the Play Store list, Google employees scan it using a system called Bouncer and Google Play Protect. Both systems were able to detect thousands of malicious Android apps submitted to the Play Store.
However, none of these systems is perfect, and over the years many malicious apps have managed to go through their filtering process, leaving unsuspecting consumers vulnerable because they trusted the legitimacy. Play Store apps.
Bypass Play Store security
In recent years, the cybercriminals at the origin of Android malware have changed tactics to avoid detection by Bouncer and Play Protect scans.
Malicious apps have started to use a multi-step delivery system, in which the malicious payload of an app is downloaded after its installation, to reach more users on the Google Play Store.
Another method used to avoid detection, which has been observed in the wild, is to use a timer to delay any malicious behavior that lasts for several hours or days. Therefore, the malware will not be detected during Google's security tests.
With the App Defense Alliance, Google will now have additional resources in its fight against malicious applications introduced to the Play Store.
Dave Kleidermacher, Android's VP of Security and Privacy, explained how the company would exploit the ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium scanning engines to identify malicious apps in a blog post:
"As part of this alliance, we are integrating our Google Play Protect detection systems with the analytics engines of each partner. This will generate new information about the risks of the application when the applications are waiting to be published. The partners will analyze this data set and they will act as another critical eyegroup before an app goes live on the Play Store. "
Through ZDNet