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Okay, so despite the snarky tone of my post title, I think this is actually pretty great idea. Turns out Google knows so much about you that they’re able to detect if your computer is harboring malware. How, you ask? Well, they’re able to do this is due to the specific malware in question sending information to Google through proxies. Once detected, Google will notify you via bright yellow message (pictured above) that your computer appears to be infected and you can update your antivirus software to remove the threat. Pretty nice of them, I must say.
Google announced this new feature on their blog today and talked about how they were able to detect this type of malware after collaborating with security engineers from several companies. Could this new malware detection be a sign that Google might be implementing something similar into the Android Market? A guy can dream, can’t he?
[Via GoogleBlog]
“I thought she was an escort!”
“No. When they’re dead, they’re hookers.”
Nice Google search. No wonder you have malware :-p
I don’t think that sort of malware really exists on android market. The stuff that intercepts your internet traffic is probably after your personal information, which is already on your phone somewhere
I didn’t realize me and Chris share such similar interests O.o
*Note to self* — Clear Google search BEFORE screen capping =/
A guy can DroidDream…
Google does use malware detection in the Market. But the last bunch of malware apps in the Market used some clever encryption to obscure the exploit code. No malware detection algorithm works perfectly.
*sigh* I was afraid of that =/
Gotta love photoshop. :D
IMO, this is could end up being a really bad idea. Up until now, users sometimes encounter ads or pop-ups when browsing the web that say your computer has a virus and offer an alleged fix. These alerts are almost invariably linked to some kind of malware, and accepting the bait unleashes a virus that’s a small nightmare to get uninstalled.
But now people will be getting legitimate alerts from Google, meaning, in the minds of net surfers, not all alerts are bad. Some are beneficial. The barrier to universally reject any web based malware notifications is now compromised. Malware creators will spoof the Google notifications or otherwise leverage the average user’s trust in the Google brand to entice people to make the necessary mistakes to let their virus in.
So while this feature might help some, perhaps many, I suspect it may help in the spread of malware.
Well shucks! Way to ruin my birthday surprise! Been trying to get rid of her for months.