The company published the statistic in its second Android Security Annual Report, released to the public yesterday. Google wants to “drive an informed conversation” about Android security by making the details publicly available, encouraging people to use Android devices by taking a transparent approach to privacy and protection.
“One important goal of releasing this report is to drive an informed conversation about Android security,” said Google. “We hope to accomplish this by providing more information about what we are doing, and what we see happening in the ecosystem. We strongly believe that rigorous, data-driven discussion about security will help guide our efforts to make the Android ecosystem safer.”
Google analyses over six billion installed apps every day, scanning for malware and Potentially Harmful Apps. The company detects network-based and on-device threats that could attack Android phones and tablets by scanning over 400 million devices every day.
Potentially Harmful Apps (PHAs) are now installed on less than 0.15 percent of devices that only get apps from Google Play. Nonetheless, malware clearly still exists inside the Play Store despite Google’s best efforts to eliminate it. The company said it has implemented new ways to prevent app developers uploading malicious products, reducing the probability of a user installing a PHA by over 40 percent in the past year.
Apps that collect user data are now installed on 0.08 percent of Android devices, a 40 percent decrease. Spyware has decreased 60 percent to 0.02 percent and apps that download other malicious software 50 percent to 0.01 percent.
Google credits the improvements to the new security features introduced with Android 6.0 Marshmallow last year. The new permissions model allows you to see and control the areas of your phone that apps can access and full disk encryption makes it harder for hackers to access data on your device.
Changes to the core of the operating system prevent devices from booting if they detect malicious code that has modified the roots of Android. Native support for fingerprint scanners has encouraged the adoption of new, more secure biometric authentication systems throughout the smartphone industry.
Google said it will continue to work to make Android a more secure platform that keeps users protected from malicious apps. It has committed to releasing monthly security updates to the core of Android, a program that has been supported by “hundreds” of unique devices that now receive regular monthly patches. Android is still fragmented and more at risk than its rivals but Google is coming to control the situation with its new proactive approach to security.
