How Google keeps Android Devices Safe.

Keeping over a billion mobile devices safe is hard work, but then how does Google do it so easily?

Its certainly a busy job for Google to make sure that over a billion devices that run their Android OS are safe as they can be. On Wednesday , at the Structure Security conference in San Fransisco, Adrian Ludwig , Google's lead engineer for Android security , said that one way Google ensures that their OS is safe is by  letting outside coders inspect their code , in a so called open source method.

It's a strategy that is vastly different from the one that Apple has, which is keeping its mobile operating system locked down from other outsiders.  However it is also true that Apple devices are a lot more safer than Android devices from hacking , according to many cyber security reports. 

Ludwig however states that the reason Android has been plagued by more viruses is because users with android devices can download and install apps from many different app stores rather than just the official Google Play Store. If you didn't already know, Google allows you to create Third Party stores in order to give people other ways to distribute their apps if they don't want it to go through the Google Playstore. Therefore when users download apps from these App stores and in the process download an app with malware , Google has to constantly check how the malware is being spread onto other devices. However, there was no mention as to how Google actually monitors this activity.

Ludwig pointed out that because Android is open source many other people can also inspect the code to find some sort of security flaw and this certainly helps. But by having more people, it does not mean that there cannot be a discrepancy in the code. There has to be times when NO ONE notices the flaw in the code like in 2014 when the Heartbleed software bug affected the open source software OpenSSL. 

Therefore Google also needs the support of carriers and hardware manufacturers that actually built the devices. They have to play their part in this by rolling out security updates regularly.Ludwig then mentioned Samsung as a standout company that did this perfectly.