Topics
Latest
AI
Amazon
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
Apps
Biotech & Health
clime
Image Credits:Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
Cloud Computing
Commerce
Crypto
Screenshots showing Google Play Protect’s real-time app scanning checking to see if an app is malicious.Image Credits:Google
Enterprise
EVs
Fintech
fund-raise
Gadgets
gage
Government & Policy
Hardware
layoff
Media & Entertainment
Meta
Microsoft
privateness
Robotics
Security
societal
blank
Startups
TikTok
Transportation
Venture
More from TechCrunch
issue
Startup Battlefield
StrictlyVC
Podcasts
Videos
Partner Content
TechCrunch Brand Studio
Crunchboard
reach Us
Android ’s in - built security locomotive Google Play Protect has a young feature of speech that deport a real - time psychoanalysis of an Android app ’s code and lug it from put in the app if it ’s consider potentially harmful .
Google announced in Octoberthe new real - time app scanning featurebuilt into Google Play Protect that the company say can help catch malicious or fake sideloaded apps installed from outside the app storage . These apps will morph their visual aspect or use AI to alter the apps ’ code in a style that helps them avoid detection .
Google said this recreate Protect feature now recommends a veridical - prison term app scan for any unexampled app that has never been scanned before . This consists of a codification analytic thinking that will “ extract crucial signals from the app and beam them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for a computer code - level evaluation . ”
Android ’s app memory has billions of apps that Google silver screen for malware , thoughnot always successfully . Many equipment possessor also take to sideloading Android apps , which skirt the app store altogether and its many lines of defense . Sideloading remains a popular lineament for Android users , even if it mean have to trust that the app they are installing is not malicious .
One of the key reasons for Google to introduce its enhanced actual - time computer code - level scanning feature is to foresee the proliferation of predatory loan apps . These apps have resulted in the harassment of users , leading in some case to victims contain their own lives . Bad actors gain admittance to user data point , including contacts and picture , which are used to bully users . TechCrunchextensively coveredthe impact of predatory loan apps on Amerind user . Google also said it take down over 3,500 such apps in the year for infract its insurance policy requirements . assailant still find ways to target their victims .
“ Our policies are make it tough for predatory apps to be listed on the Play Store . But the unsound actors are inventive , and they are finding new way to fob people and that is why we take additional measures , ” said Saikat Mitra , Google ’s head of trust and safety for APAC at the Google for India event in New Delhi last month , while announcing the update to act Protect .
Google ab initio launched the Play Protect update in India , with plans to soon expand internationally . TechCrunch try the feature out for ourselves by loading a phone with a variety of malicious and bad apps to see what would make it through .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
We tried to install more than 30 unlike malicious apps , from stalkerware and spyware to predatory loanword apps and fake ripoffs of popular apps . Google Play Protect obstruct nearly all of the malicious apps with warnings like , “ Apps from unknown developers can sometimes be unsafe , ” and “ This app tries to spot on your personal data , such as SMS content , photograph , audio recordings , or call story , ” or , “ This app is fake . ” A fistful of recently make predatory loan apps , however , were successfully installed .
To try out out the scope of the Play Protect update , we used a Pixel 7a with a sweet install of Android 14 with the update Google Play Store have literal - time code - floor scanning .
We begin the testing on the Pixel 7a by trying to install various spyware apps that have rebranded or been cloned , or otherwise had codification variety that would attempt to evade detection . ( We ’re not naming or link up to the apps contribute their malicious nature . ) commercial-grade surveillance apps , like stalkerware or spouseware , are typically surreptitiously installed by someone with physical entree to a mortal ’s phone , often a spouse or domestic partner . These spyware apps wordlessly and continually upload the message of the person ’s phone , including messages , photos and real - fourth dimension localization information , and represent a major security measure and privateness risk to the people whose phones are compromised .
Play Protect interfere each time we tried to install spyware and stalkerware . The feature film blocked the apps from installing , labeling the apps “ harmful . ”
We also picked a fistful of predatory loan apps that weredisguised as popular Android apps . These loan apps upload the equipment ’s liaison list to a server under the pretense of fraud bar , and loanword agent can use this access to send threatening and intimidating messages and call to their contacts . The landing page of one of the predatory loan apps resembled a regular Google Play listing , but required the user to download and manually sideload the app from outside the app store .
The Play Protect update did not trammel five predatory loan apps from instal at the time of our testing .
We also attempt to instal a couple of apps that appear to be bogus versions of other popular apps listed on Google Play . The apps we try out are similarly identify and feature good - identical design and user experience , but are clearly developing knock - offs . One of the false apps copy a popular biz and the other masqueraded as a wide used VPN app .
Play Protect allowed these two apps to be installed , though it ’s unclear for what determination the fake apps were ab initio developed .
“ With this recent sweetening , we ’re add real - clip scanning at the codification - level to Google Play Protect to combat new malicious apps , no matter of if the app was downloaded from Google Play or elsewhere , ” said Google spokesperson Scott Westover in an electronic mail to TechCrunch when reached for scuttlebutt . “ These capabilities will continue to germinate and meliorate over clip , as Google Play Protect collects and analyzes Modern types of threats facing the Android ecosystem . ”
Sideloading allows the freedom to establish any Android app but not without peril . Faced with an on-going deluge of apps that speedily change their appearance and codification , Google ’s young material - time app scan feature is an of import last line of defense for billions of users and bound to only meliorate over sentence .
These Android feature will facilitate protect your digital concealment
