Google up till now, has never came forward to justify the claims against its Linux-based operating system Android, that it is the most precarious Smart Phone based Operating System, and have over 1Milion High-Risk apps in its Play Store.
Ever since it was released publically in September 2008, dozens of proclamations and researches had been published professing that Android is not a secure platform for Smart Phones.
Google has ultimately broken the Ice, and despite the fact that Play Store has over 1Million Malware apps, Google claimed that, Android is more secure than any other platform, including iOS.
Google’s Android Security chief Adrian Ludwig; researcher Eric Davis and Jon Larimer at Berlin’s Virus Bulletin conference had laid out the engaging report with comprehensive demographic & analytical data, called “Android – realistic security from the ground up”.
The report manifested the engrossing illustration of the security dynamic in the open Android ecosystem. It was exhibited to dispute the pretenses of pervasive Android malware threats.
Here is an overview of one of the info-graphic shown by Google’s Security folks.
This picture is showing the multiple layers defense level that a user has to go through before installing an App.
According to Ludwig, the number of malware that actively strive to dodge runtime security checks in order to wreck users is surprisingly just 0.001% of installed apps. And these are the numbers that tries. The numbers of apps that really able to provoke harm are even scantier than that. Fascinating! Isn’t it?
Ludwig relates the Google’s strategy to control Malware as similar to the role, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) plays in public health.
“The CDC knows that it’s not realistic to try to eradicate all disease. Rather, it monitors disease with scientific rigor, providing preventative guidance and effective responses to harmful outbreaks”
Google evidently gathered data from apps that were installed from outside the Play Store and where the probability of malware and worms is much eminent.
Based on the data collected from 1.5 billion app installed from Outside, Google secured credible evidence that the proportion of “potentially harmful apps” installed is about 0.12%.
However, there is still one admonition to all these. Google’s statistics and data are determined from Android devices that have Google Play Store installed, with the feature of ‘Verify Apps’. No data had been collected from the Smart Phones and Tablets that have not been authorized to run Google Play services, especially those manufactured in China.
And why is it Google’s problem what people do with Android outside of the scope of what Google recommends? The Play Store itself has adequate safeguards in place. Apps installed from outside the Play store need to be manually side-loaded into a device, that is only possible once the user explicitly allows installation of non-market apps.
Moreover, enabling unknown app sources initiates a warning which the user has to accept. So to get myself infected, I would have to go out of my way to first enable non-market app installation, then side-load the app. And that is Google’s problem how?
Just like Apple can’t be held responsible for apps that are installed as jailbreak-enabled ones, it’s not Google’s fault if users decide to install risky apps.
And can you please stop pulling numbers from your backside? How can there be “1 Million high risk-apps on the Play Store” when that’s almost the same as the TOTAL number of apps on it? Do you mean to say EVERY damn app up there is high-risk?
Hello twister286, We do not just say stuff based on the assumptions. There is a complete research done over Android, and carried by TrendMicro, they evidently showed that there is indeed over 1million Malware Apps in Android Market.
BTW, What made you think that there is just 1Million Apps in the Market ?
Have a look at this http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/mobile-malware-high-risk-apps-hit-1m-mark/
And I would trust a company which makes its money selling “security software” to tell me Android is secure enough…yeah right.
And from your own source, they said 1 million apps “in the wild”. And that is NOT the same as the Play Store. The Play Store itself totals about a million apps from Google’s own estimations.
I do not understand whats your point here; you are just trying to proof me wrong somehow.
I’d appreciate if you’d read this statement, “In our 2Q Security Roundup for the year, we noted that more than 700 thousand malicious and risky apps were found in the wild. This impressive number plus the continuous popularity of the platform among users lead us to predict that 2013 would be the year when Android malware reaches 1 million.” , Also, have a look at my aforementioned source, Figure 1 has made my point clear enough.
Also, What do you mean by trusting a company who sells security software ?
There’s something called sarcasm. Either way, here’s the catch if you havent grasped it yet:
1. “In the Wild” apps are NOT necessarily those on Google Play. One Million apps in the wild IS NOT THE SAME as 1 million being on the play store. I repeat, (and this source backs it up :http://www.phonearena.com/news/Androids-Google-Play-beats-App-Store-with-over-1-million-apps-now-officially-largest_id45680 ) that the TOTAL apps on Google play are around 1 million.
2. It’s not Android’s fault (or Google’s for that matter) what apps the users decide to SIDE-LOAD into a device, IGNORING the Android’s OS warning that it could open up exposure to harmful apps.
3. Trend Micro makes their money selling useless junk like un-needed, bloated security suites. It is their BUSINESS to scare users of Android and try and sell them their software as “protection”. Their word is as reliable as Symantec (makers of Norton) telling me Linux is not secure enough.
Hello again,
I am very well aware about Sarcasms.
And as far as your other point is concerned, I really admire the way you have elaborated it, And I certainly admit that you are correct while I am not.
Thank you very much for taking your time considering pointing out some flaws here. :)
I appreciate the fact that you took the time out to read my replies thoroughly
This is how we expand our knowledge, through informed debate :)
:D hehehehehehe