Android app devs will now be required to verify their identity
Developers will be asked for additional details before submitting apps to Google Play
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In a bid to prevent malicious apps from ending up on thePlay Store,Googlehas announced a couple of steps to verify the identity ofmobile app developerson its platform.
Cybersecurityresearchers have detected all kinds of threats lurking inmalicious appson theGoogle Play Store, including thePhantomLance spyware,adware trojans, andmalware droppers.
Google recently provided anoverview of its effortsto weed out dangerous applications from the Play Store, including throwing out over 119,000 app developer accounts. The company’s machine learning solutions also prevented over 962,000 apps from getting listed on the marketplace.
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“To keep Google Play safe and secure and to better serve our developer community, we are introducing two new security measures: additional identification requirements and two-step verification,” wrote Luke Jefferson, Product Manager at Google Play, and Raz Lev, Product Manager at Google Play Trust and Safety, in ajoint blog post.
Identity verification
Explaining the changes, the duo said that, in addition to asking for developers’ email addresses and phone numbers, all Google Play developer accounts will now need to furnish additional details.
To begin with, developers will need to specify whether their account belongs to an individual or an organization. They will then be asked to provide details such as the name and physical address of the developer or organization that owns the account.
Google says this information will strictly be used for identity verification and communication purposes only, and will not be shared publicly.
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In addition, all developer accounts will be further protected bytwo-step verification, starting first with all new accounts in August, moving on to cover existing accounts later in the year.
While Jefferson and Lev pitch the new measures as mechanisms to help strengthen the security of developer accounts, the fact of the matter is that these new steps will help identify and mitigate bad apps and developers.
With almost two decades of writing and reporting on Linux, Mayank Sharma would like everyone to think he’sTechRadar Pro’sexpert on the topic. Of course, he’s just as interested in other computing topics, particularly cybersecurity, cloud, containers, and coding.
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