Android's built-in Google Play Protect malware defense system has not passed AV-TEST testing. The system was able to detect approximately two-thirds out of 20,000 malicious applications it was pitted against.

According to AV-TEST, Google's mobile threat protection solution ranked last out of 15 Android security apps tested over a span of six months, between January to June 2021.

During the test, Google Play Protect detected about two-thirds of nearly 20,000 malicious applications that experts used as part of three rounds of tests. In each round of testing, the security solution was pitted against over 3,000 malware samples (detected in the last 24 hours) and a reference set of more than 3,000 other samples (detected in the last month).

Out of all mobile security apps tested, Bitdefender, G DATA, McAfee, NortonLifeLock, and Trend Micro demonstrated the highest detection rate (100%).

In addition, Google Play Protect has mistakenly detected 70 applications as potentially malicious out of almost 10,000 harmless ones installed by AV-TEST from the Play Store and third-party Android app stores.

Source: securitylab.ru