Scammers frequently employ social engineering tactics to deceive mobile users. Using urgent pretenses that often involve a risk to a user’s finances or an opportunity for quick wealth, cybercriminals convince users to disable security safeguards and ignore proactive warnings for potential malware, scams, and phishing. We’ve seen a large percentage of users ignore, or are tricked into dismissing, these proactive Android platform warnings and proceed with installing malicious apps. This can lead to users ultimately disclosing their security codes, passwords, financial information and/or transferring funds unknowingly to a fraudster.
To help better protect Android users from these financial fraud attacks, we are piloting enhanced fraud protection with Google Play Protect. As part of a continued strategic partnership with the Cyber Security Agency of Singapore (CSA), we will launch this first pilot in Singapore in the coming weeks to help keep Android users safe from mobile financial fraud.
This enhanced fraud protection will analyze and automatically block the installation of apps that may use sensitive permissions frequently abused for financial fraud when the user attempts to install the app from an Internet-sideloading source (web browsers, messaging apps or file managers). This enhancement will inspect the permissions the app declared in real-time and specifically look for four permission requests: RECEIVE_SMS, READ_SMS, BIND_Notifications, and Accessibility. These permissions are frequently abused by fraudsters to intercept one-time passwords via SMS or notifications, as well as spy on screen content. Based on our analysis of major fraud malware families that exploit these sensitive permissions, we found that over 95 percent of installations came from Internet-sideloading sources.
During the upcoming pilot, when a user in Singapore attempts to install an application from an Internet-sideloading source and any of these four permissions are declared, Play Protect will automatically block the installation with an explanation to the user.
Collaborating to combat mobile fraud
This enhanced fraud protection has undergone testing by the Singapore government and will be rolling out to Android devices with Google Play services.
“The fight against online scams is a dynamic one. As cybercriminals refine their methods, we must collaborate and innovate to stay ahead, “ said Mr Chua Kuan Seah, Deputy Chief Executive of CSA. “Through such partnerships with technology players like Google, we are constantly improving our anti-scam defenses to protect Singaporeans online and safeguard their digital assets.”
Together with CSA, we will be closely monitoring the results of the pilot program to assess its impact and make adjustments as needed. We will also support CSA by continuing to assist with malware detection and analysis, sharing malware insights and techniques, and creating user and developer education resources.
How developers can prepare
For developers distributing apps that may be affected by this pilot, please take the time to review the device permissions your app is requesting and ensure you’re following developer best practices. Your app should only request permissions that the app needs to complete an action and ensure it does not violate the Mobile Unwanted Software principles. Always ensure that your app does not engage in behavior that could be considered potentially harmful or malware.
If you find that your app is affected by the app protection pilot you can refer to our updated developer guidance for Play Protect warnings for tips on how to help fix potential issues with your app and instructions for filing an appeal if needed.
Check out the video below to learn more.
Our commitment to protecting Android users
We believe industry collaboration is essential to protect users from mobile security threats and fraud. Piloting these new protections will help us stay ahead of new attacks and evolve our solutions to defeat scammers and their expanding fraud attempt. We have an unwavering commitment to protecting our users around the world and look forward to continuing to partner with governments, ecosystem partners and other stakeholders to improve user protections.
As more aspects of our lives intersect with the digital sphere, law enforcement around the world has increasingly turned to electronic evidence to investigate and disrupt criminal activity. Google takes the threat of cybercrime very seriously, and dedicates significant resources to combating it. When governments send Google legal orders to disclose user data in connection with their investigations, we carefully review those orders to make sure they satisfy applicable laws, international norms, and Google’s policies. We also regularly report the number of these orders in our Transparency Report.
To ensure that transnational legal demands are issued consistent with rule of law, we have long called for an international framework for digital evidence that includes robust due process protections, respects human rights (including the right to free expression), and aligns with existing international norms. This is particularly important in the case of transnational criminal investigations, where the legal protections in one jurisdiction may not align with those in others.
Such safeguards aren’t just important to ensuring free expression and human rights, they are also critical to protecting web security. Too often, as we know well from helping stand up the Security Researcher Legal Defense Fund, individuals working to advance cybersecurity for the public good end up facing criminal charges. The Cybercrime Treaty should not criminalize the work of legitimate cybersecurity researchers and penetration testers, which is designed to protect individual systems and the web as a whole.
UN Member States have an opportunity to strengthen global cybersecurity by adopting a treaty that encourages the criminalization of the most egregious and systemic activities — on which all parties can agree — while adopting a framework for sharing digital evidence that is transparent, grounded in the rule of law, based on pre-existing international frameworks like the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, and aligned with principles of necessity and proportionality. At the same time, Member States should avoid attempts to criminalize activities that raise significant freedom of expression issues, or that actually undercut the treaty’s goal of reducing cybercrime. That will require strengthening critical guardrails and protections.
We urge Member States to heed calls from civil society groups to address critical gaps in the Treaty and revise the text to protect users and security professionals — not endanger the security of the web.
