The Huawei Nexus 6P.
Google wants everyone to know what it is doing about Android security and has published its annual report for the second year in a row. For the Android Security 2015 annual report, Google highlights several measures it has taken to make the ecosystem more secure:
- It scans over 6 billion installed apps daily to protect users from malware and other Potentially Harmful Apps (PHAs).
- It scans 400 million devices daily to protect users from network-based and on-device threats.
- Its Safe Browsing feature on the Chrome browser continues to protect millions of users from unsafe websites.
Due to the enhanced security measures, Google claims that it is less likely for PHAs to slip into Google Play. In fact, the probability of installing a PHA from Google Play has fallen by over 40% in 2015 compared to 2014. Fewer than 0.15% of devices installed PHAs from Google Play. The figure rises to 0.5% for devices that install PHAs from both Play and third-party sources.
The company also took the chance to reiterate the new security features in Android 6.0 Marshmallow such as full disk encryption, updated app permissions, new verified boot and Android security patch level. Last year, Google promised to deliver monthly updates for Nexus devices.
However, researchers at the University of Cambridge revealed that over 87% of Android devices are still insecure due to the lack of security updates from vendors. It seems that there is still much work to be done on Google's end to make the Android ecosystem more secure.
Source: Google Security via The Verge
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