Android users will be able to breathe easy: This is how the new app scanner will work
Natively, Android users can download and subsequently install all types of applications. Even those that are not in the application stores and have origins from unknown sources. While this brings great versatility, it also presents a risk: the difficulty in carrying out early detection of potential malware threats. Luckily, Google is taking action on the matter.
He mobile app market it doesn’t stop growing. New apps are constantly breaking into this area that promise us interesting improvements or functionalities with which to enrich our user experience. However, this situation also presents a notable security risk. And by installing applications from sources that we do not trust, it is possible that, without account data, we are also downloading malware that pursues all kinds of objectives by entering our terminal, none of them positive.
Aware of this situation, and with the aim of protecting its users, Google would be preparing a new Play Protect update to try to increase the security actions that any device carries out when downloading a new app. We tell you their latest news.
Scanning applications prior to download
From now on, users who download applications outside of Google Play will have the option to give access to Google Play Protect so that a scan is carried out prior to their complete download. At the moment, Play Protect It already runs different checks that take advantage of machine learning and AI to minimize possible risks. However, now he is going to take it a step further. It is worth remembering that we are faced with a security system developed by the North American giant whose main objective is to protect all devices with this operating system from possible malware threats.
Now Google is updating Play Protect so you can scan the code in real time before downloading. This system will be responsible for extracting and identifying important signals from the application and the send to Play Protect to evaluate the code and identify possible threats that may compromise our privacy and user experience. Considerably improving the analysis methods that this system currently uses.
Instant results
This tool will help us both to analyze the applications found in the Google app store, as well as for all those downloads that are made outside the store. When we go to download, a pop-up window will appear that will show us two options: “Scan the app” and “Do not install the app”. Therefore, a priori we will not be able to carry out the download if the possible risks thereof have not been previously analyzed.
As Google states, Play Protect results They will be immediate after the analysis. And the user will know from that moment if it has been determined that the application is potentially harmful. In this case, it will not allow the download to continue.
One of the new features of this new version is that, now, Google will be able to avoid applications that take advantage of methods such as AI to modify themselves when downloading and avoid being detected by specific software.
