Google scans apps before being placed in the market!

**remister** · 10-14-2008, 03:10 AM

I would think Google would be obligated to do that, unless they wanted developers to make apps that are virus ridden or take our information without knowing.

**MJakeX11** · 10-14-2008, 07:28 AM

thats awsome i knew they couldnt juss let snything hting on the market thank god

**felixHcat** · 10-14-2008, 07:40 AM

"Scan?"

The way most virus scanning software works is by cross-referencing a dictionary of known threats. Obviously this would not work as there are no "known threats".

Google would have to use some sort of Heuristic analysis, running the applications in a VM and analyzing the actions of the software for common viral activities such as replication, file overwrites, and attempts to hide its existence.

Heuristic analysis is by no means 100% -- effectiveness is fairly low regarding accuracy and the number of false negatives.

I'd be interested to know if Google actually intends to analyze hosted applications.