Security News > 2023 > October > Google Play Protect adds real-time scanning to fight Android malware
Google has announced new, real-time scanning features for Google Play Protect that make it harder for malicious apps employing polymorphism to evade detection.
The problem is that authors of malicious apps promoted outside Google Play have resorted to AI and polymorphic malware that frequently alters identifiable information in a malicious program to bypass automated security platforms, making those scans ineffective.
To address this gap, Google has now enhanced Play Protect with the ability to perform real-time scanning at the code level and adds a recommendation to perform scans on apps that haven't been scanned before.
The scanning will extract behavioral signals from the app, sending them to the Play Protect backend infrastructure for an in-depth code-level analysis, returning a result on the app's safety.
"Google Play Protect is constantly improving with each identified app, allowing us to strengthen our protections for the entire Android ecosystem."
Play Protect is part of Google Play Services, which is regularly updated independently of the device's Android version and security patch level as long as it's still supported.
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