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.
Mobile payments grow, and so too do security worries
Mobile payments are on the rise all over the world. More consumers are getting their hands on smartphones and tablets, allowing them to shop and purchase products online with nothing more than their mobile device and their financial information. Mobile commerce services are expanding, providing the infrastructure necessary to facilitate a new form of commerce among a wide range of consumers. As mobile payments become more common, they are attracting the attention of more than just consumers and businesses. Hackers are beginning to consider mobile commerce a very lucrative playground, and the growth of mobile payments is highlighting the security concerns that exist in this emerging field.
Mobile commerce may yet be vulnerable to threats
The mobile commerce field has successfully attracted several large companies, many of whom have investing in improving the technology used in the field. As the technology that forms the foundation for mobile payments improved, it becomes easier for consumers to make payments directly from the smartphone of tablets. Many of the technological updates have been focused on making mobile commerce more accessible to consumers, however, and not necessarily more secure. This has left many gaps in protection that could be exploited by malicious parties.
Malware targeting mobile commerce field is becoming more common
NQ Mobile, a leading developer of mobile security software, notes that more than 65,000 new malware threats were exposed throughout the world in 2012. Much of this malware was designed to simply gain access to a mobile device and exploit its information in some way. A significant portion of these threats, which posed as unassuming and docile mobile applications, were designed specifically to steal a consumers financial information when they participated in mobile commerce in some way. NQ Mobile claims that the problem is serious and growing to become a major crisis if measures are not taken to address the issue of malware in the mobile commerce field.
Awareness of mobile security currently lacking among consumers
Mobile security is currently one of the largest challenges facing mobile payments today. Many consumers have shown that they are willing to purchase products, shop, or pay their bills with a mobile device, but relatively few actually do so due to concerns regarding the security of their information. There are several brands of security applications available to help protect mobile devices from malware that would exploit a consumer’s financial information, but awareness of these applications is still somewhat low among many mobile consumers.
