Google to Require Developers to Enable 2FA and Provide Real Information Before Uploading Apps in Play Store

Google is preparing a series of measures meant to better secure the Google Play Store by ensuring the developers who upload apps and updates are more trustworthy.

The Google Play Store is a vast library of software, and it’s growing by the minute. While the company is doing its best to keep malware and other types of threats on its platforms, it’s not entirely successful. More than once, Google has been forced to pull apps from the store after discovering developers uploaded apps that didn’t respect the license agreement but weren’t malicious enough to trigger the existing protection.

“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 2-Step Verification,” said Google. “These measures will help strengthen your account security and will help us better understand your needs.”

Creating a new developer account on the platform is now a little more complex, with a few extra steps that would discourage, hopefully, developers with malicious intent. Now, developers have to provide an email address and a phone number.

Moreover, owners of developer accounts will have to tell Google whether it’s a personal or enterprise account, and disclose the name of the holder and a physical address. Also, the existing emails and phone numbers on file will have to be verified.

Having real people, with real names, behind accounts will help keep the official store a little safer. Google will occasionally email or call the developers to check if the information provided is real. While all of these measures are positive, they won’t offer 100% protection against attacks. Running a security app such as Bitdefender Mobile Security at all times is always recommended.