On the 4th, the Ministry of Science and ICT signed a business agreement with Google at the main conference room of the Presidential Advisory Council on Science & Technology in Jongno-gu, Seoul, and officially announced the domestic launch of Google's Enhanced Fraud Protection (EFP) security program.
EFP provides a function that automatically blocks apps that request excessive permissions that could be abused for criminal purposes when users try to install applications through web browsers, text messages, or file managers. This is explained as a means to prevent phishing and the installation of malicious apps.
This program can be applied to older devices released since 2015 and is automatically integrated into the system without users needing to install a separate app. It is noteworthy that it can effectively block the spread of malicious apps through direct messages (DM) on social networking services (SNS), which have been recently spreading.
The Ministry of Science and ICT predicts that the introduction of EFP will protect approximately 35 million Android smartphones. Google has already introduced and is operating this program in some countries, including India and Brazil, starting from Singapore in February of last year.