Android malware soars in Q2 of 2012

Malware is a significant problem on the Android platform by anyone’s standards. The huge popularity of the platform has led to more and more rogue developers targeting it. As a result the number of logged malware incidents on the Android platform has started exponential growth. According to antivirus giants Kaspersky Labs a staggering 15000 new malware were added to the Kaspersky database for the 3 month period of this year April 1st to July the 1st.

49 percent of these are multi-functional trojans, which steal data from mobile phones, including contact names, email addresses and telephone numbers, but they can also download more software from servers they are connected to, presenting an even greater threat to mobile users.

SMS Trojans (which steal credit and auto-text premium numbers) make up 25% of all Malware incidents, 18% are backdoors (allowing hackers to gain full access to an Android device and potentially form a botnet with it) and 2% are spy programs – allowing hackers to access valuable personal details that could led to bank account fraud.

“In the near future, we expect not only more malware, but more effective and dangerous malware targeting Android,” said Yuri Namestnikov, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “Judging from existing trends, we should expect that cybercriminals will soon shift to more personalised attacks. This is primarily about malware hunting for confidential data with which to steal money from users’ credit cards.”

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