Google updates Play Protect to detect harmful apps on the fly
Google is updating Play Protect to enhance its scan protections and prevent malware from infecting Android devices that are not from the Play Store. The company has found that malicious parties are using some tactics to infect devices through downloads directly through messaging apps.
The Play Protect already checks for malware when you install apps via sideloading, using existing scanning intelligence, on-device machine learning, similarity comparisons, and other techniques.
The new update includes real-time scanning at the code level, which extracts important signals from the app and sends them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for a code-level evaluation. This is planned to detect occurring threats, like polymorphic malware that can change its identifiable features.
When you try to install an app that has never been scanned before, a prompt will appear with two options – “Scan app” and “Don’t install app.” In addition, Google will provide a reason why it was determined to be harmful, such as “app can allow unauthorized access to your data or device.”
The latest Play Protect update is currently available in India and Google will expand to all countries in the coming months. Every day, Google Play Protect scans 125 billion apps and has the ability to disable apps it supposed harmful.
