At the IEEE Security Symposium there’s been a taskforce of sorts formed, the Android Malware Genome Project – AMGP doesn’t sound good does it? – to understand our enemy that seems to be gaining strength. Critics for some time now have been poking fun at the Android platform for its apparent malware problem however, it’s more than logical for those looking to produce malware to latch on to the platform with more numbers and numbers that are only growing.
Malware for android has been on the rise little by little and, it doesn’t seem like it’s just going to go away. I, myself, am off the mind that it’s nowhere near as big a problem as some would lead you to believe however, the idea of malware and viruses once relegated to your old Windows XP machine coming to your smartphone or tablet is a little scary. These are the devices that we pile huge amounts of personal information into and in some case hold more dear than our desktops.
The project is essentially an effort to create databases of all known forms of malware and to then share this information in order to better combat the common enemy. There’s already 1200 specimens out there and, if you’re curious you can have a look at them at the project’s website, here.