Google, Microsoft, and Meta announced they are formally partnering as the founding steering committee to improve app security through a newly restructured App Defense Alliance, under the Joint Development Foundation, part of the Linux Foundation family. The steering committee plans to expand the scope of the Alliance to foster collaborative implementation of industry standards for app security.
Launched by Google in 2019, the App Defense Alliance was established to ensure the safety of the Google Play Store and the Android app ecosystem by focusing on malware detection and prevention. With a growing emphasis on app security standards, the Alliance expanded its scope in 2022 and is now the home for several industry-led collaborations including Malware Mitigation, and App Security Assessments for both mobile and cloud applications.
The evolution of the App Defense Alliance under the JDF represents a significant step forward and demonstrates a shared commitment by the members to strengthen app security and related standards across ecosystems. With a member community spanning an additional 17 General and Contributor Members, the Alliance will support industry-wide adoption of app security best practices and guidelines, as well as countermeasures against emerging security risks.
“The App Defense Alliance will help further strengthen trust and confidence in overall app safety by uniting with others in the industry that share an unwavering commitment to protect users,” said Dave Kleidermacher, VP of Engineering for Android and Made-by-Google Security & Privacy at Google. “I want to thank the other original founding members of the App Defense Alliance from when we started this back in 2019. Google will continue to partner with these mobile threat detection providers to combat threats while actively partnering with the App Defense Alliance and the community to help make apps safer for all users across ecosystems.”