Google's Android Market employs Bouncer protection
by Steven Mostyn - Feb 3 2012, 10:41
Image: alancleaver_2000/Flickr.
Ever keen to enhance the worth of its Android operating system, Internet titan Google is to improve security at the platform’s Android Market by employing a muscular doorman unwilling to tolerate or admit undesirable riff-raff.
More pointedly, Google is implementing ‘Bouncer’, a new security measure designed to prevent the spread of malicious content by scanning Android Market software applications (apps) for likely threats.
According to Google, the automated technology will rifle through new and existing Android Market apps without disrupting the user experience or requiring developers to pass through an application approval process.
“[Bouncer] performs a set of analyses on new applications, applications already in Android Market, and developer accounts,” outlined Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of Android engineering at Google.
Further to that, Bouncer will instantly frisk all apps added to the Android Market in an attempt to detect and root out malware, spyware, Trojan threats, and anything else deemed to be suspicious.
“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,” added Lockheimer, “and we know the rate is declining significantly.”
In terms of fleshing out that claim, Google points out that current use of Bouncer has already led to a 40 percent drop in potentially malicious downloads through Android Market.
Comment on this Story