Closing the flood gates
It's long been clear that Android, rather than WP7, is the Windows of mobile. By that we mean it's the most common smartphone OS, and can be used by almost any OEM on any device that will support it. But this ubiquity and relative openness leaves it potentially more vulnerable to malicious software, an issue that came to a head last week.
A bunch of rogue apps were identified on the Android Market, which were designed to allow remote access to devices and gather data from them. Once stories of these apps started doing the rounds in the media Google quickly removed them from the store, but the fear now is that they were just the tip of the iceberg.
So over the weekend Google published a blog post detailing some of the other measures it has taken to secure the Android Market from moody apps. As well as removing the apps from the market, Google is using its remote management facility to remove the apps from affected devices. It's also pushing a security update to those affected and working on some other stuff.
The vulnerability that's being exploited by this malware doesn't exist in Android versions 2.2.2 and above, but what Google has yet to address is what owners of devices running earlier versions of Android, but are as yet unaffected by this malware, can do to protect themselves.
Needless to say, the security software industry has wasted little time in reminding us what mortal peril our Android devices are in, and that we should buy their software without a moment's further hesitation. We've received missives from Bullguard, which has been making mobile security software for years. AVG has also been in touch and we've downloaded its free app, which was pretty easy to use. How effective it is, we couldn't possibly ascertain.
