Google now scans all Android apps for viruses

Google has added an automatic scanner designed to prevent malware from entering the Android Market. 

The new service, codenamed Bouncer (bouncer in Russian), scans applications for known viruses and Trojans, and also looks for new ones,” Hiroshi Lockheimer, one of the vice presidents of Android, said the other day.

Each application is automatically launched in the Google cloud service, where it is simulated on an Android device.

“When you download an application to the Android Market, the system launches it in cloud mode, in which it monitors what it does,” explains Lockheimer.

If malicious code or suspicious behavior is detected, the application is marked as potentially dangerous. The ability to download it is blocked if it is clearly malicious. A potentially dangerous program is checked and immediately removed from the market if the scanner finds a virus in it. 

“An application containing an already known virus will simply not be allowed to download,” adds Lockheimer. 

This is a very important step for Google, because, as you know, up to this point, no app was required to get to the Android Market. Now the situation has changed a little, however, it is not a fact that developers will notice this, because Google will scan in the background when downloading the application to the market.