Explaining Android's video: Alphabet is Ending the Google Play Security Reward Program Android News Byte

After 7 years, the company is ending the program that helped to keep popular apps secure. ~~~~~ Hi! Don't forget to like the video, subscribe to the channel, and hit the "Thanks" button on this video, if you can, and join our channel community here - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnowc_KHgjVNj3Y-E-oQ8aw/join Mentioned Links ~~~~ Report - https://medium.com/@blackjoseph044/the-google-play-secruity-reward-program-to-end-after-nearly-7-years-39907cc741f3 Video Description ~~~~~ Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Android News Byte. Today, I wanted to highlight news of an important security reward program coming to and end. 7 years ago, Alphabet launched the Google Play Security Reward Program as a way to make sure popular Android apps were not vulnerable to compromising your device. The program was rather limited at launch, but quickly expanded to cover more and more applications. Then, in 2019, it was expanded again to cover any application with over 100 million installations. Rewards were also bumped up to a maximum of $20,000 for remote code execution bugs. . .and $3,000 for bugs that enabled the theft of insecure private data. . .or a bug that allowed access to protected application components. Over the years, the data collected from this reward program allowed Google to create systems that automated checks when an application was submitted to the Play Store. And these checks were able to help over 300,000 developers fix more than 1 million apps before they were pushed live to the public. Thankfully, this has resulted in fewer and fewer bug reports submitted to the Google Play Security Reward Program, which has basically made the bug bounty program obsolete. So Google has announced the Google Play Security Reward Program will be ending at the end of this month, on August 31st, 2024. With final reward decisions being completed by September 30th. conclusion It's surprising to see Alphabet ending this system, no matter how little it is being used. It can't cost the company that much money to keep it open. . .and ending it will almost assuredly enable new unknown exploits to become more common as time goes on. Google claims they're ending the program because they've seen a "significant decrease in the number of vulnerabilities reported through the program." Before going on to say "the enhanced security measures built into Android over the years have reduced the necessity for external bug hunting." But giving security researchers less incentive to report these types of bugs is not going to be good for Android security as a whole. I'll remain cautiously optimistic for now, but this could result in some unexpected security vulnerabilities in the future. And before I forget, please click the like button on this video while also making sure to subscribe to the channel for more Android News content like this. Summary ~~~~~~ 1. Intro [00:00] 2. As an Amazon associate, I may earn a commission on sales from the links below. The Gear I Use ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 5W "Slow" Charger - https://amzn.to/2OaUMV8 Fast Charger - https://amzn.to/3rtBsC6 MicroUSB Cable - https://amzn.to/38dkpeM USB-C Cable - https://amzn.to/2OqlTvi TPU Cases - https://amzn.to/38g9b9w USB-C to 3.5mm Dongle - https://amzn.to/3rVt7c3 USB-C to 3.5mm DAC - https://amzn.to/3CyksSJ NVIDIA Shield TV - https://bit.ly/3KA17RV Telescopic Controller - https://amzn.to/3uDrvY9