Will Google Bouncer definitely remove all malware from the Android Market?

[Nesivos]

Will Google Bouncer definitely remove all malware from the Android Market?
Dmitry Bestuzhev
Kaspersky Lab Expert
Posted February 06, 15:21  GMT

Will Bouncer be effective in addressing the malware problems with Android apps?

First of all, this is a good and really necessary move Google is taking, however the solution will be only partial. Based on the public information around this service, all apps will be scanned for known malware. Basically that means a multi-scanner or something similar will be used, so the quality of malware detection will depend greatly on what AV engines Google will use to analyze apps. Not all AV engines have the same quality, so there is a possibility some malicious apps won't be detected as malicious. The second step offered by Google is emulation. It's a good approach, however it can also be cheated by anti-emulation tricks or a malicious app can be programmed to behave differently once an emulation is detected, making the app appear to be non-threatening.  So, basically the same malware tricks used to bypass Windows security can be implemented now on Android.

Is it still a good idea to use a mobile security program for protection even with Bouncer in place?

Yes, for sure it's a good idea. The situation is many people download apps not only from the official Android Market, but also from third-party sources.  Nobody knows for certain what kind of apps are out there on private market stores, run by people not affiliated with Google. Additionally as we mentioned if Google's multi-scanner won't count on all AV engines but only some of them, it's certainly good to use AV detection on your phone as a second opinion for anything that might have slipped past Google’s scanner.

Are there ways for hackers to sneak infected apps into the store despite Bouncer?

cont on link

http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193375/Will_Google_Bouncer_definitely_remove_all_malware_from_the_Android_Market

[Filip Havlicek]

Google said themselves that they have been using Bouncer for 6 months (more or less) and they reduced the amount of malware on Android Market by 40% (or something like that) meaning half of the malware still passed the Bouncer and was available on Market (and they had 6 months to perfect the algorithms etc) before the Bouncer was officially introduced (afaik). Malware creators will now focus on bypassing the Bouncer to push their software to the Market imho.

Filip

[deyani]

I hope http://www.avast.com/free-mobile-security will "kill" that bad software as well.

[DavidR]

That of course is the general idea, another line of defence. But that shouldn't stop google trying to clean house also.