By Joseph Menn in San Francisco
Published: March 7 201www.ft.com
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Google is remotely disabling malicious software that deceived more than a quarter of a million owners of Android smartphones, as the outbreak continues to raise questions on the company’s approach to security.
It is the first time Google has had to reach into already-purchased phones to remove dangerous applications that customers have voluntarily installed.
The company has always kept the ability to do so as part of its licensing agreement with manufacturers and last year it wiped Android phones of a security researcher’s experimental program that was harmless but designed to demonstrate flaws in the system.
Google quietly revealed its latest action in a blog post late on Saturday night, saying no user data had been compromised by the more than 50 rogue applications and that customers would be notified by late on Tuesday if their devices had been cleaned.
The company declined to detail the steps it was taking to remove the malware. Nor did it say how many phones had been infected or which handset models had been targeted with the most success, but a person familiar with the countermeasures said about 260,000 devices had installed the bad programs. The person said the unknown attackers, who had copied legitimate applications in the official Android Market, added code giving them the ability to take control of the phones, then offered the doctored versions for download to the public.
Google said on its blog that staffers were “adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android”.
Security researchers said they did not expect Google to move to a curated system like that used by Apple, which scrutinises applications before allowing them to be distributed through its online app store.
“This is the way they have chosen,” said Mikko Hypponen, chief technology officer at Finnish security provider F-Secure. “As a result, they are likely to see more malware attacks than, say, the iPhone.”
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