Android has become more secure thanks to artificial intelligence - Google banned 2.36 million malicious apps in one year

 

Google Play is the largest app marketplace in the world, which is why cybercriminals constantly attempt to introduce malicious apps to infect millions of devices.

For this reason, over the past few years, Google has employed thousands of agents to manually inspect various issues related to its app store. However, starting in 2024, they have also begun incorporating artificial intelligence into the process.

Thanks to this, Google reported that, in collaboration with human reviewers and AI-driven algorithms, they were able to block 2.36 million malicious apps on the Google Play Store in 2024.

Along the way, they also banned more than 158,000 developer accounts that attempted to distribute potentially harmful applications on the platform.

Another notable statistic from Google’s security report is that over 92% of human code reviews for high-risk applications are now conducted with AI assistance.

Additionally, Google blocked 1.3 million apps in 2024 that requested highly sensitive user data.

Developers have also had to take action, as Google now requires all apps to adopt the latest security protections available starting from Android 13.

Google also highlighted its Play Protect service, which is enabled by default on Android devices.

This system scans over 200 billion installed apps across users’ Android devices in real time every day.

Essentially, it works by detecting known malware signatures and more advanced threats present on users’ devices during security scans.

However, in 2024, Play Protect identified over 13 million new malicious apps that were installed from sources outside the Google Play Store.

The best part, according to Google, is that Play Protect will introduce new features in the coming months to further combat these dangerous applications.