Tag: android malware

The latest information released by Trend Micro shows that the landscape is changing due to malware.

The Threat Security Roundup from Trend Micro has just been released and it has suggested that issues regarding mobile security threats are starting to change the trends in the overall protection and digital landscape.

Cyber criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in the way that they target smartphones and tablets.

Though the use of malware as a mobile security threat is nothing new, and it has been increasing for some time now, criminals are making much more complex and sophisticated attacks, says Trend Micro. According to the Trend Micro SA country manager, Gregory Anderson, “Our most recent threat report shows that cyber criminals have absolutely no regard for the privacy of Google Android smartphone and tablet users.”

Anderson pointed out that malicious apps over Android are creating a higher risk mobile security environment.

In fact, he stated that there has been an increase in high risk, malicious apps on that operating system by nearly 30 percent over the last quarter. Anderson explained that “Our Trend analysts tracked 718 000 separate instances of high-risk Android apps in the second quarter, up from 509 000 high-risk apps found in the first three months of this year. Based on these figures, we estimate that the number of high-risk Android applications available on the market will exceed a million by the end of 2013.”

The Android malware that has the greatest sophistication so far, has been nicknamed “obad” malware. It was discovered by Kaspersky Lab, which was also responsible for coming up with that nickname. It was that firm that identified the “master key” vulnerabilities that provide criminals with a way to quickly and easily take advantage of Android system weaknesses.

This problem has been a primary contributor to the skyrocketing increase in mobile security threats, particularly in smartphones and tablets that are Android based. At the very top of the list, according to Trend Micro’s report, is United Arab Emirates, in terms of the highest download volume of malicious apps. This was followed by Myanmar, Vietnam, and Mexico, in that order.

According to the recent study, the attacks on smartphones with this operating systems are rapidly rising.

NQ Mobile security solutions company has just released a report that has shown that the number of malware attacks that are occurring on devices that are based on the Android operating system significantly increased in 2012.

The report was issued on Monday and underlined the importance of smartphone protections against attacks.

The report drew attention to the fact that as the operating system becomes increasingly popular, so do the attempts to infect it from those with unethical intentions. It urged consumers using smartphones to become aware of the risks of using mobile security devices and to alter their behaviors in order to protect themselves against attacks.

The mobile security report showed that the popularity of Android does make it a malware target.

As a whole, the number of mobile security attacks that were recorded on Android smartphones were recorded to have doubled from 2011 to 2012. According to the authors of the report, this has made these devices among the most profitable cybercriminal trends. Last year the most commonly used techniques of this nature were phishing and smishing, which are those that are used in an attempt to gain use of the personal and/or financial information of the users.

Among the primary mobile security results that were noted by the report include:

• An increase of 163 percent in the instance of malware, as 65,227 new malware pieces were discovered last year, when compared to 24,794 which were discovered the year before.
• A specific target of malware of 94.8 percent toward Android devices last year. Comparatively, only 4 percent of these harmful attacks were geared specifically toward Symbian based devices.
• Of all of the mobile security malware that was discovered last year, 28 percent had been designed for the specific intention of obtaining personal and financial data from users for the purpose of profit for the attacker.

This mobile security report has supported the results of other studies that are revealing that there is a rapidly growing trend of malware issues on smartphones, as their popularity continues to grow worldwide.