Yes, as the title says device your running Android is not in immediate danger from the super scary malware monster Quadrooter.
Why
We have met it many times. Every little bit of a company comes out with an impressive title on how many millions of Android users are in danger of being infected by a big, bad and blameworthy virus. (DANGER! Countless are the media that convey the story, using the same (and worst) shocking way of presenting things without actually understanding Android, security or the surrounding environment.
Namely: The latest Android malware that has scared both people, announced by an antivirus software company called Check Point, has been dubbed Quadrooter.
The company announced that 900 million (millions!) Users are at risk of data loss, loss of privacy, and possibly loss of bladder control - all because of the Quadrooter demon and its presence in Qualcomm portable processors.
"Without an advanced mobile threat detection solution on Android devices, a user is less likely to suspect any malicious behavior on their device," the company said in a statement that caused panic.
Well, we go again:
Only an advanced threat detection solution can stop it? Wait, like Check Point? It certainly seems very coincidental.
Check Point's covert advertising campaign is about its product which is a "mobile threat detection and mitigation" solution. But what the company did not mention is that Verify Apps already exist on almost all 900 million Android devices. Comes as part of the Android operating system since 2012.
Verify Apps scans your device for potentially problematic ones programs and so you can download new apps. Verify Apps will stop you from installing any app that could compromise your device's security and warn you if an existing app starts doing something suspicious.
Verify Apps is present on every Android device running Android version 2.3 or higher, and according to its latest metrics platformof Google, is present on 99,9% of active Android devices.
Google has confirmed that the system is already secure from each Quadrooter.
Oh! the malware monster is suddenly not so scary.
It's the same story we've seen every few months for years now, and the parameters are almost always the same:
A company that earns money from selling antivirus software publishes some big, bad viruses that attack Android devices.
Here are a few standard questions worth doing every time you hear about a new big and bad virus:
- Who is behind the "research" and what is its motivation?
- Is this the threat associated with something I'm likely to download and install, or does it spin around a weird random app that you might never encounter?
- If you somehow try to install the software, maybe it stops my phone as it feels harmful?
- Has a user been affected by this?
You need to be sure that the malware monster will never die. There will always be someone who will display it with a different name and different disastrous properties. Companies like Check Point are constantly watching.
Post it Computerworld.com
