Tag: android security

Many are looking at the latest version of the operating system as an indicator that Google is serious about safe devices.

As the largest operating system in terms of the number of users, it means that Android mobile security can be one of the biggest challenges as it is one of the most obvious targets by cyber criminals as it provides the largest opportunity in terms of users.

The popularity of attacks and threats on this operating system has been compared to Windows for desktops.

Being the most popular means that Android mobile security needs to be exceptionally high in order to fend off threats. The latest version of the operating system, KitKat, has considerable increased its settings to keep its users safe from malware. Until now, one of the primary problems with the OS is that fragmentation in its ecosystem among the various manufacturers has complicated the standards that it is able to offer. Considering that 79 percent of threats for smartphones and tablets are aimed at Android users, this is a considerable issue.

The fragmentation means that Android mobile security could be different from one device to the next.

Therefore, the protection on a Samsung device may be quite different from what an LG phone user might have. Therefore, a vulnerability may be addressed on one device, but it doesn’t mean that all of the device versions will corrected. Google is not unaware of this issue and has decided that its latest release, the version 4.4 KitKat, would include a number of security features that are enterprise focused.

Although Android mobile security has been increasingly building a reputation for being less powerful than that available through the Apple iOS, Google is highly focused on changing that trend. Although the solution is far from perfect, considering the open source nature of the operating system, the additional options such as in the form of KNOX and SAFE are helping to boost the protection in the devices. At the same time that this effort has been made, Google has also been expanding the reach of the devices based on its operating system beyond traditional mobile markets and into gaming, as well.

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.