Google Asks Three Mobile Security Firms To Help Scan Play Store Apps

Google announced today that it partnered with three private cyber-security firms — ESET, Lookout, and Zimperium — to start a new project called the App Defense Alliance. From a report: The purpose of this new project, Google said, was to unify malware and threat detection engines and improve the security scans that Android apps go through before being published on the Play Store. Currently, when an app developer creates and submits an Android to be listed on the official Play Store, the app is scanned by Google employees with a system called Bouncer and another called Google Play Protect. In the past, Google said that both systems have been able to detect thousands of malicious Android apps submitted to the Play Store. However, while this system has been efficient, it hasn’t been perfect, and many malicious apps slipped through across the years, from banking trojans to ransomware strains. Over the past few years, Android malware authors have also adopted to counteract and negate Bouncer and Play Protect scans.