Google Play still fights adware and malware
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 02/09/2014 06:27 AM
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Depending on which anti-virus scan you run, Google Play may or may not be full of malware, according to Hewlett-Packard’s latest Cyber Risk Report.
In terms of just malware, they found that users had downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 11 million times globally. And adware was found to have been downloaded up to tens of millions of times.
What was disturbing was that Firms such as ESET, Fortinet, DrWeb, and Sophos recorded between 4507 and 5121 as suspect adware. Symantec, however, only recorded a half a dozen apps. This out of a sample of 7000 apps.
Kaspersky, Trend Micro, BitDefender, McAfee, and AVG ran a middle course finding a range of a few hundred to the low thousands.
“One way of looking at it could be that Google is friendlier to developers, and that it does not reject apps for aesthetic reasons. Another way of looking at it could be that Google’s revenue is more ad-related than Apple’s hardware-centric revenue, and therefore Apple can enforce a more consumer-friendly app store policy,” HP's report said. “The industry needs to work together to come up with consistent definitions of what constitutes malicious or unwanted behaviors and a sensible app store policy and guidelines, accommodating to app users, app makers, and third-party ad providers while preventing abuses.”
Google has known about malware embedded in their apps for some time and has been vigilant about the issues, pulling apps when malware or adware is found.
In terms of just malware, they found that users had downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 11 million times globally. And adware was found to have been downloaded up to tens of millions of times.
What was disturbing was that Firms such as ESET, Fortinet, DrWeb, and Sophos recorded between 4507 and 5121 as suspect adware. Symantec, however, only recorded a half a dozen apps. This out of a sample of 7000 apps.
Kaspersky, Trend Micro, BitDefender, McAfee, and AVG ran a middle course finding a range of a few hundred to the low thousands.
“One way of looking at it could be that Google is friendlier to developers, and that it does not reject apps for aesthetic reasons. Another way of looking at it could be that Google’s revenue is more ad-related than Apple’s hardware-centric revenue, and therefore Apple can enforce a more consumer-friendly app store policy,” HP's report said. “The industry needs to work together to come up with consistent definitions of what constitutes malicious or unwanted behaviors and a sensible app store policy and guidelines, accommodating to app users, app makers, and third-party ad providers while preventing abuses.”
Google has known about malware embedded in their apps for some time and has been vigilant about the issues, pulling apps when malware or adware is found.
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