Google has been frequently criticized for its inability to ensure that the apps on its Google Play store are safe enough. The latest statistics revealed by the security firm TrustGo seem to corroborate this, citing that over one year, Android malware has grown by a whopping 580 percent!
This huge growth in the volume of Android malware was recorded between September 2011 and September 2012. While these figures warrant the valid criticism that Google needs to do more to ensure that the apps hosted on Google Play are safe, TrustGo’s numbers may be misleading.
This is because the company has its own Android antivirus app and it may be playing up the hype simply to boost its sales. At the same time, while its statistics may be correct, they need to be understood in correlation with the overall growth of the Android apps market.
For instance, while Android malware may indeed have grown by 580% over one year, we also need to know the growth figures of the overall Android app market. That helps greatly in getting a clearer picture of the state of affairs.
When pitted against the overall number of Android apps, it is discovered that a mere 1.69 percent of the total Android apps are malicious. TrustGo also revealed that in the course of this one year, Android users downloaded 175 million ‘High Risk’ apps from the Google Play store.
Again, TrustGo’s definition of ‘High Risk’ is highly arbitrary and encompasses many such apps which are perfectly safe. So those figures are not reliable at all. You can dig into the TrustGo infographic below to find out more details about its report regarding the security of Android apps market:
Source: TrustGo
Courtesy: TNW
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