After Attacks, Google Vows to Fortify Android Market

From PC World: Google will build new safeguards into Android Market, its application store for the Android mobile OS, following an attack that infected thousands of phones and forced the company to wipe the malware remotely from phones, it said late Saturday.

More than 50 applications in the Android Market were found to contain a program called DroidDream, which is capable of stealing information about a mobile device and, more dangerously, downloading other malicious applications to the phone.

Google was fairly silent about the problem until Saturday, when it confirmed in a blog post that it decided to use a command that remotely erases malicious applications.

Android users that have downloaded a malicious application will get an e-mail within three days from the address android-market-support@google.com explaining the situation, wrote Rich Cannings , Android's Security Lead. In addition to wiping malware, Google is also forcing an update on users called "Android Market Security Tool March 2011" which fixes the security issues that DroidDream exploits.

Some users may get a notification on their device that a malicious application has been removed, Cannings wrote. About a day after the vulnerabilities have been fixed, users will receive a second e-mail.

View: Article @ Source Site