Google has been working extensively to improve the Google Play Store experience for users. One of these initiatives is the Application Security Improvement Program for apps that are submitted to the store for approval.
Now, Google has confirmed that the initiative has flagged more than a million apps for security reasons before they are available on Play Store for users to download. Moreover, the search engine giant has claimed that the program helped over 30,000 developers fix more than 75,000 apps in 2018 alone.
The Application Security Improvement Program tests apps before publishing them on the store. “Think of it like a routine physical. If there are no problems, the app runs through our normal tests and continues on the process of being published in the Play Store. If there is a problem, however, we provide a diagnosis and next steps to get back to healthy form,” Google notes on its online security blog.
According to Google, the program covers a wide variety of security issues, such as vulnerabilities in specific libraries or inadequate TLS/SSL certificate validation.
Google introduced six new security vulnerability categories in 2018:
- SQL Injection
- File-based Cross-Site Scripting
- Cross-App Scripting
- Leaked Third-Party Credentials
- Scheme Hijacking
- JavaScript Interface Injection
Google claims that it will continue to “evolve” the initiatives in the light of the new threats. The company has started taking privacy and security issues seriously over the years or at least has been suggested by its new permissions policy and its Play Protect feature.
In February, Google revealed that Play Protect scans over 50 billion apps on devices each day to spot apps with potential vulnerability. Further, the company claims to have rejected 55 percent app submission last year while app suspensions were up 66 percent.
However, harmful apps tend to slip through Google’s security check as evident by a Trend Micro report earlier this year. The research firm found over two dozen malicious apps that were disguised as beauty apps on the Play Store.
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