“Android malware is on the rise,” Dan Tynan reports for Yahoo Tech.
“According to Symantec’s latest Internet Security Threat Report, ’17 percent of all Android apps (nearly one million total) were actually malware in disguise.’ In 2013, Symantec uncovered roughly 700,000 virus-laden apps,” Tynan reports. “Symantec used its Norton Mobile Insight software to crawl more than 200 Android app stores, downloading and analyzing more than 50,000 apps and app updates each day in 2014.”
“Most of the malware found by Symantec tries to steal personal data like phone numbers and contact lists, which are then sold on the Internet’s black market, says Haley,” Tynan reports. “Some may cause your phone to send text messages to premium SMS services, automatically adding charges to your monthly bill. Other apps may pelt you with ads that pop up randomly over other applications. Some apps even change your default ringtone to an advertisement, Haley says.”
“As for iOS?” Tynan reports. “Symantec found a grand total of 3 infected apps in the iTunes store in 2014. Last year it found zero.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Our Lady of Perpetual Beta’s hastily-assembled iOS knockoff is the Typhoid Mary of mobile.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “eldernorm” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Kaspersky Lab Director: Over 98% of mobile malware targets Android because it’s much, much easier to exploit than iOS – January 15, 2015
Security experts: Malware spreading to millions on Android phones – November 21, 2014
There’s practically no iOS malware, thanks to Apple’s smart control over app distribution – June 13, 2014
F-Secure: Android accounted for 99% of new mobile malware in Q1 2014 – April 30, 2014
Google’s Sundar Pichai: Android not designed to be safe; if I wrote malware, I’d target Android, too – February 27, 2014
Cisco: Android the target of 99 percent of world’s mobile malware – January 17, 2014
U.S. DHS, FBI warn of malware threats to Android mobile devices – August 27, 2013
Android app malware rates skyrocket 40 percent in last quarter – August 7, 2013
First malware found in wild that exploits Android app signing flaw – July 25, 2013
Mobile Threats Report: Android accounts for 92% of all mobile malware – June 26, 2013
Latest self-replicating Android Trojan looks and acts just like Windows malware – June 7, 2013
99.9% of new mobile malware targets Android phones – May 30, 2013
Mobile malware exploding, but only for Android – May 14, 2013
Mobile malware: Android is a bad apple – April 15, 2013
F-Secure: Android accounted for 96% of all mobile malware in Q4 2012 – March 7, 2013
New malware attacks Android phones, Windows PCs to eavesdrop, steal data; iPhone, Mac users unaffected – February 4, 2013
Prior to Steve Jobs unveiling of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android didn’t support touchscreen input – April 14, 2014
Before iPhone, Google’s plan was a Java button phone, Android docs reveal – April 14, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
