Android's onboard malware scanner utterly fails

[Archean]

Android's on-board malware scanner utterly FAILS

Google has added new anti-malware capabilities to Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean," but relying on them to block malicious apps might not be a good idea, says a computer science boffin from North Carolina State University. The latest Android – currently only found on a select group of handsets – includes an on-device "application verification service" that claims to be able to alert users of potentially harmful apps and block their installation, irrespective of where they came from.

Associate professor Xuxian Jiang wanted to know how well the new feature fared against known Android malware, and to that end he pitted it against a collection of samples obtained by the university's Android Malware Genome Project. The results? Not so good. Of the 1,260 samples tested, Android's on-device malware checker only managed to spot 193 of them, for a paltry detection rate of just 15.3 per cent.

I guess this seems to be not only worse than MSE ............ but to put it mildly beyond pathetic.

 

[bobcat]

My Android is totally immune, safe and trouble-free...I ain't got one.

 

[Zoltan Head]

Of the 1,260 samples tested, Android's on-device malware checker only managed to spot 193 of them, for a paltry detection rate of just 15.3 per cent.

Could be worse?(y)