Abu Zar Mishwani
In comparison to other prominent anti-malware solutions on the market, Google Play Protect, the pre-installed malware protection on Android devices, has failed to deliver a comparable level of security. According to a study, the system only recognized two-thirds of 20,000 dangerous apps during a test that included a total of 15 security apps for Android smartphones. In contrast to Google Play Protect, however, applications from Bitdefender, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, and TrendMicro were able to achieve a 100% detection rate.
AV-Test, a German IT security firm, performed research on Android applications to help protect users from harmful assaults and found Google Play Protect to be the least effective of 15 security apps. The study lasted six months, from January to June, and included applications from Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, F-Secure, Kaspersky, NortonLifeLock, and Trend Micro, to name a few.
In the endurance test, nine of the 15 applications considered for the research got a perfect score of 18. Avast, AVG, Bitdefender, F-Secure, G DATA, Kaspersky, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, and Trend Micro developed these applications. With 17.8 to 17.1 points, Avira, Protected.net, securiON, and AhnLab applications came in second and third, respectively. Ikarus, an Australian firm, earned 16 points as well. However, with only 6 points, Google Play Protect came in last in the series.
Play Protect, according to Google, scans more than 100 billion applications every day and is installed on 2.5 billion active devices. However, neither the large-scale scanning nor its widespread availability appears to have delighted AV-Test experts, who discovered that Google’s solution detected just 68.8% of the entire 20,000 harmful applications in a real-time test. In the same test, Avira, F-Secure, and AhnLab applications were found to have achieved 99.8% and 100% detection, respectively.
In all of the institute’s testing, the machine learning-based Play Protect system issued false alerts more than 70 times.
Users should utilize an extra security program in addition to Google Play Protect, according to AV-Test.
Play Protect was released by Google in 2017, and it was stated in 2018 that the solution has helped decrease a substantial number of vulnerability incidents on Android. According to recent reports, even though Google Play Protect was enabled by default, numerous malicious applications were able to target users. In 2017, AV-Test found that Google Play Protect’s malware detection rate was considerably below the industry average.