More Malware-Infected Apps Found In Android Market

Trailrunner7 writes "For the third time in the last few months, Google has had to remove a slew of malware-infected apps from the Android Market and suspend some publishers. Ten Android apps in the Official Android Market are known to be infected, but many more could be victims of the Plankton Trojan. Researcher Xuxian Jiang claims that early variants of the Trojan have evaded detection for as long as two months."

Comments

Re:I realize I'm going to get torn to shreds...

[shadowfaxcrx]

I'm not going to flame you because you're right. But you're also wrong:
The closed iPhone store is a great advantage to have when you sell phones to morons. The "app store" for PCs and Macs has never been closed. People are either smart about what they install on their computer, or they install any random crap they see in a popup ad and find out what it's like to get a virus or a trojan.

I view smartphones as no different from PCs in that regard. The dumb users are going to install "cool sexy japanes walpapr!!" and other obvious malware, and then they're going to pay the price for being dumb. The smart users are going to check what permissions the app is grabbing, and then realize that a scientific calculator does not need to read your contacts or see your location, and not install it. In other words, even if you download Android malware, if you look at the permissions, you can recognize the malware as malware and decline to install it.

I'm not really a fan of the "short circuit Darwin" approach to consumer electronics in which developers try to anticipate any dumbassed thing some idiot might do with the device, and then build walls to prevent the dumbassery. (and to be fair, as the latest Mercedes commercials featuring drivers crediting the car for bailing them out from being idiot drivers demonstrates, it's not just in electronics). I'm more of a proponent of the idea that smart phones should live up to their name. Android phones are not meant for abject morons.

If Apple wants to market their phones to morons by basically saying "don't worry, we'll protect you from your own stupidity," that's up to them, but I don't think that necessitates a similar strategy in response from the Android camp. If you're basing a phone-buying decision on security, and you think you're too dumb to avoid installing hentai porn applications that end up jacking your phone, then buy an iPhone. If you think you're smart enough to handle elementary security dialogs, then get whichever phone you like better.