Rival app stores should cooperate to improve the security of their downloads, an EU security agency advised. The security of apps should be as important as its functionality, the group argued Tuesday.
“Currently, there is no incentive for, example, Android developers to invest in a lot of security, because their apps will be listed with less secure apps that were developed in one day by amateurs,” said Marnix Dekker, co-author of the cybersecurity agency ENISA report.
The report, which details steps app stores can take to improve user safety, promotes the idea of recommendations based on a developer’s security reputation. Instead of only recommending apps based on their functionality, users should be able to learn how well security safeguards are developed.
But for the concept to work well, it must be shared by all app stores. Currently app store security teams do no cooperate, which the Dekker termed “counterproductive and not very efficient.”
The group also recommends smartphone makers create a ‘sandbox’ environment for testing newly downloaded apps. This would ensure smartphone owners do not fall victim to malicious apps which can take control of a handset or email private data.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
16 responses to “Europe Thinks App Stores Should Work Together To Stop Malware”
Think they already do… it’s uneducated people clicking on shiny flashy links filled with empty promise.
dont they know that apple checks apps before letting anything in their store
,, that makes it pretty safe , i havent had any problems
now as for android  u wanna be open source u gotta deal with that .. end of story
Android user will know some day just like Windows full of Virus and user prefer to change to Mac and iOS for more safety. Yes Apple are close and control but they care of user security.
“Rival App Stores”?
there’s the iTunes App Store, and the Mac App Store, and they’re not rival…
maybe he’s talking about rival marketplaces?
I know you know this but the term “App Store” can be used in two ways, as a name (the iOS and Mac App Stores) and a general term for stores selling apps.
And while I do think that Apple should get a trademark for App Store and Amazon (and others) be forced to come up with their own name (if Google Docs or Amazon Cloud Drive can be trademarked App Store can imo), it’s still a way to describe any store selling apps.
Well it doesn’t really have anything to do with being open source (which they aren’t doing a great job at anyway) but the fact that the android marketplace is open and anyone can upload an app without google or anyone check the app for security issues.
You can still be safe on android though, well kinda, the Amazon Appstore has all it’s apps checked, it’s only for the US though (you can get hold of it and use it from outside the US but it’s only in the US marketplace)
“Open Source” doesn’t mean what you think it does. Open Source is a very particular style of licensing that requires, among other things, that you openly give out the source code for the software in question
What you are thinking of with Android is merely a case of an open market. Anyone that wants to sell can, no rules, buyers be very aware. Compared to Apple’s very closed market where they can approve or reject according to rules they can literally change when they want (something developers agree to when they sign up). Apple’s market is so closed that if you tamper with your software to use another market you just lost your warranty. ouch on the one hand. yeah on the other (cause they have pretty much no malware compared to android)
He’s obviously NOT talking about Apple! They already do all of the things he described are necessary. This just shows that Android’s days are numbered!