Google Play Protect can now find malicious Android apps that try to evade detection

Google Play Protect can now find malicious Android apps that try to evade detection،

Google already scans 125 billion apps daily to protect Android users from malware. If it detects an app that might be problematic, Google Play Protect may send you a warning, prevent you from installing the app, or if it’s already installed, it may automatically disable it. The bad guys have their own plan to evade detection by modifying the functionality of apps in third-party app stores to hide their true identity as malware. This tricks users into downloading what they think is a clean app, but is actually malware.

Another ploy used by cybercriminals is to trick users using malicious apps, messaging apps or emails into revealing confidential information such as passwords, credit card PINs and passwords. personal banking information. The problem here is that attackers play on users’ emotions.

For example, if you receive a text message appearing to be from your bank regarding a large withdrawal they are looking to verify, many would be led to click on a link, revealing relevant account information and more, for fear of being scammed. . Ironically, in this case, the fear of getting scammed could actually lead someone to get scammed. In this example, the text didn’t really come from the bank and was sent purely to scare the user into revealing their personal data.

Google Play Protect will perform real-time app scanning at the code level to help detect dangerous apps disguised to evade detection

Google Play Protect aims to protect you outside of Google Play by scanning your Android device for harmful apps, regardless of where you installed them from. And Google improved Play Protect starting last week. According to a statement from the tech giant, when checking an app installed by an Android user in real time, Google previously relied on existing analytics intelligence, on-device machine learning and similarity comparisons with infected applications to find loaded applications. with malware.

To make Google Play Protect a stronger security force, when installing an app that has never been scanned before, it will now recommend that a real-time app scan be performed at the app level. coded. Once the scan is completed, the Android user will be informed whether the app is safe to install or whether it is potentially unsafe and is blocked. This will help prevent users from installing an app that uses various methods, including AI, to evade detection and steal your personal data.

Google says: “Our security protections and machine learning algorithms learn from every app submitted to Google for review and we review thousands of signals and compare app behavior. Google Play Protect constantly improves with each app identified, which allows us to strengthen our protections for the entire Android ecosystem.”

The improved version of Google Play Protect has started rolling out to all Android devices using Google Play Services. The rollout has started in India and will expand to all markets in the coming months.

Google notes that its multi-layered system protects Android users from malware and unwanted software with Google Play Protect, monthly security updates, app permission controls, and Safe Browsing. Google and Gmail also protect users against phishing and spam. As the company said last week: “Keeping Android users safe is a top priority. We are committed to working with our ecosystem partners and the app developer community to improve app security and combat malware and unwanted software to make Android even more secure.