The security team at Android has recently released their annual security report, which analyzes data for PHAs (Potentially Harmful Apps) over all the Android devices. Moreover, the file explains how the OS checks the apps for their behavior and offer statistics for the software updates for the devices.
According to the report, 2016 brought a platform security update to more than 200 manufacturers and their 735 million devices, given the fact that the team constantly worked on security updates for Android 4.4.4 and newer. However, the thing here is that around half of the devices that were being used at the end of last year haven’t received a security update from a year before. Regarding this, Android developers said that they are working to streamline the security update program.
Keeping devices safe
The team declared that the “Verify Apps” feature existing on Android was used more than 750 million times in 2016, which is an increase from 450 million times in 2015. As such, the PHA installation rate has dropped in the first 50 countries that use Android most.
The report also shows that the team made some improvements to security features in Nougat. However, there is also a warning there for all the devices, but especially for those who use apps from various sources.
Despite the fact that the devices using PHAs increased last year, their overall number is still low. The team said that only 0.71% of the Android devices had installed PHAs in December 2016. However, it’s still an increase, since in the beginning of 2015, the number was 0.5%.
Conclusion
The only conclusion that deserves to be kept in mind when it comes to Android apps is that you should install them only from the official store, namely Google Play, if you want to keep your device 100% secure.
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