Google ‘kills’ malware infected Android apps

The reputation of the world's most popular mobile operating system, Android, has been dealt a blow after it emerged that Google had to remotely disable 58 different apps installed on more than a quarter of a million smartphones around the world because they contained malicious software.

The programme, known as DroidDream, was able to steal personal information from mobiles, download other malware onto the infected phone and even take control of the handset.

It was discovered in 58 free apps that had been installed on as many as 260,000 different mobiles. Google responded by activating a remote 'kill switch' that deleted the apps from the users' phones, it has since contacted everyone who had downloaded one of the infected apps to explain what had happened.

Google has been criticised by some people - and celebrated by others - for not exercising as much control over applications in its Android system as rivals like Apple do over their iPhone OS. However, it recently became the most popular operating system, and is used by handset manufacturers HTC and Samsung. In the last quarter of 2010, 33 million Android handsets were produced, more than double the number of iPhones and iPads.

The fact that Google was able to remove the apps remotely has caused as much concern among bloggers as the fact that the apps were infected with malware in the first place - some described it as 'Orwellian'.

Writing for Tech Crunch, Jason Kincaid noted: "The whole situation is pretty alarming for Android users... Google wins some points for removing the affected applications within minutes of being informed of their malicious intent. But the fact that it is unable to distribute system security updates is unnerving - Google can downplay Android's fragmentation issue all it wants, but when user security is at stake, we shouldn't have to rely on the carriers."
 
Dean Takahashi blogged on the Mobile Beat website: "The reason this happened in the first place is that Google doesn't screen apps... By contrast, Apple reviews all apps before approving them for inclusion in its App Store."

And smartphone security expert Mikko Hypponen told the Metro: "I do think Android phones are more vulnerable than any of the other major smartphones out there at the moment." ·