Google's 'Bouncer' scans Android apps for malware

Google has added an automated scanning process that is designed to keep malicious apps out of the Android Market, the company announced today.

The new service, code-named 'Bouncer', scans apps for known malware, spyware and Trojans, and looks for suspicious behaviours and compares them against previously analysed apps, Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice president of engineering on the Android team, said in an interview with CNET News on Thursday.

Every app is then run on Google's cloud infrastructure to simulate how the software would operate on an Android device, he said. Existing apps are continuously analysed, too.

"The system takes an app that's been uploaded and runs it in the cloud and monitors what the app is doing in a virtual environment, if you will," Lockheimer said.

For more on this ZDNet UK-selected story, see Google now scanning Android apps for malware on CNET News.