The company has once again proved that it does everything possible to protect users.
Yesterday, April 29, Google announced significant efforts to improve the security of its Play Store app for Android. Last year, the company rejected or demanded to fix about 200,000 apps that tried to access sensitive user data, such as location or SMS messages.
About 333,000 accounts were also blocked for attempts to distribute malware and multiple violations of the rules. However, the most impressive record was set by the number of applications that were never published in the Google store due to a violation of the security policy.
"In 2023, we prevented the publication of 2.28 million apps that violate our policies, thanks to investments in new security features, rule updates, and improved application verification processes using machine learning," Google representatives said.
To protect user privacy on a large scale, the company has partnered with SDK vendors to limit access and exchange of sensitive data, which has increased the level of protection for more than 31 SDKs affecting more than 790,000 applications.
Compared to last year, when Google prevented the publication of 1.43 million malicious apps, this year's growth was obvious and very significant.
In addition, the company has strengthened the registration and verification process for developers, requiring them to provide more information about their identity and go through the verification process when setting up developer accounts in the Play Console. These measures made it possible to better understand the developer community and identify attackers who are trying to use the system to distribute malicious applications.
As part of an effort to protect the Android ecosystem, Google last November moved the App Defense Alliance under the aegis of the Linux Foundation, with Meta and Microsoft joining as core members of the governing board.
In the same period, the company launched real-time code-level scanning to combat new types of malware for Android and introduced the "Independent Security Check" icon for VPN applications that have passed the Mobile Application Security Audit (MASA) in the Play Store.
On the user side, Google also removed about 1.5 million apps from the Play Store that did not comply with the newest APIs.
It is noteworthy that the Google report came out shortly after it became known that the company filed a lawsuit against two scammers from China, accused of international deception of consumers and distribution of fake applications through the Play Store and other sources, which led to the theft of funds from users.
Yesterday, April 29, Google announced significant efforts to improve the security of its Play Store app for Android. Last year, the company rejected or demanded to fix about 200,000 apps that tried to access sensitive user data, such as location or SMS messages.
About 333,000 accounts were also blocked for attempts to distribute malware and multiple violations of the rules. However, the most impressive record was set by the number of applications that were never published in the Google store due to a violation of the security policy.
"In 2023, we prevented the publication of 2.28 million apps that violate our policies, thanks to investments in new security features, rule updates, and improved application verification processes using machine learning," Google representatives said.
To protect user privacy on a large scale, the company has partnered with SDK vendors to limit access and exchange of sensitive data, which has increased the level of protection for more than 31 SDKs affecting more than 790,000 applications.
Compared to last year, when Google prevented the publication of 1.43 million malicious apps, this year's growth was obvious and very significant.
In addition, the company has strengthened the registration and verification process for developers, requiring them to provide more information about their identity and go through the verification process when setting up developer accounts in the Play Console. These measures made it possible to better understand the developer community and identify attackers who are trying to use the system to distribute malicious applications.
As part of an effort to protect the Android ecosystem, Google last November moved the App Defense Alliance under the aegis of the Linux Foundation, with Meta and Microsoft joining as core members of the governing board.
In the same period, the company launched real-time code-level scanning to combat new types of malware for Android and introduced the "Independent Security Check" icon for VPN applications that have passed the Mobile Application Security Audit (MASA) in the Play Store.
On the user side, Google also removed about 1.5 million apps from the Play Store that did not comply with the newest APIs.
It is noteworthy that the Google report came out shortly after it became known that the company filed a lawsuit against two scammers from China, accused of international deception of consumers and distribution of fake applications through the Play Store and other sources, which led to the theft of funds from users.
