Google has selected Zimperium, a Dallas-based mobile threat defense company, to vet applications in the Google Play Store and keep potentially harmful mobile apps off the marketplace.

Zimperium, a member of Google’s App Defense Alliance, will use its machine learning-based z9 technology to scan mobile apps going through the process of being published on the Google Play Store to sort out possibly malicious apps before they ever make it to the store.

“One of our strategic imperatives as a technology company is to relentlessly innovate,” said Jon Paterson, Zimperium’s chief technical officer, in a statement. “We have continuously evolved our core technology and, as a result, become the benchmark standard for machine learning-based detection of mobile malware ensuring detection of zero day samples. We look forward to collaborating with Google to keep users of Google Play apps protected from attack.”

Zimperium was described as an important partner for Google’s Android team in its efforts to keep the Play Store secure said Dave Kleidenmacher, head of Android security and privacy, at Google. The Android team has a close relationship with the cybersecurity community and the App Defense Alliance was created to strengthen this collaboration in the effort to protect users from harmful apps.

Zimperium’s tech is the only mobile security solution that delivers on-device, machine learning-based detection of network, phishing, and malicious app attacks, according to the company. The company’s investors include Sierra Ventures, Samsung, Telstra, Warburg Pincus, and SoftBank.

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