The recent Google malware scare in the Android market has had the expected fall out, with the company quickly removing the applications from the devices.
On the malware, Google wrote in its blog post, “The applications took advantage of known vulnerabilities which don’t affect Android versions 2.2.2 or higher. For affected devices, we believe that the only information the attacker(s) were able to gather was device-specific. But given the nature of the exploits, the attacker(s) could access other data, which is why we’ve taken a number of steps to protect those who downloaded a malicious application”.
In the past, Microsoft was also similarly targeted but the company improved soon with regularly issuing patch updates.
The problem seems to have occurred as there is no approval process in place in the Android market, and the company remains new to the mobile games, although it’s doing good in other businesses.
Meanwhile, Google has removed all the malware spreading apps from the Android marketplace. The associated developer accounts were also suspended, and appropriate law enforcement authorities were contacted by the company.
The Android market security update is also being sent to the affected devices so the attackers may not gain more access to the users’ information.
However, considering the visibility of the Android platform, such attacks may resurface in future as well.