Malicious Activity Catches Wave of Android Popularity
by Bitdefender Security Specialists, on 22 February 2012
Android may have arrived late to the mobile operating system party, but it quickly made up for lost time. While old-school OSs running on smartphones such as the good-old Symbian have faded away, Android’s adoption rate has become so steep that it’s now on 53% of the worldwide mobile devices, including tablets, as revealed in the Q3 2011 Gartner Report.
Unlike its main competitors, Apple and Windows Mobile, its open architecture and the less restrictive requirements for third-party application development have made it the operating system of choice for a wide range of mobile phone and tablet vendors.
With a choice of over 400,000 applications at hand on the Android Market – collectively downloaded more than 10 billion times by now - Android has opened a huge niche for cyber-criminals, who have started developing both conventional e-threats (Trojans and spyware focused on information theft or device control) as well as dialers and premium-rate SMS senders that make fortunes for their masters at the expense of smartphone users.
The past six months have seen a significant increase in malicious activity on the Android front. Bitdefender Mobile Security statistics reveal that more than 100 new malware families were detected in 2011, as compared to the 3 to 4 malware strains in 2010. Among these newly discovered e-threats are both exploits that attempt to root the device and lay the ground for further malware, but also highly-advanced malware with polymorphic capabilities.
Malicious activity since July 2011
Bitdefender Security Specialists
Bitdefender Labs
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Authors
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Bitdefender Security Specialists
Bitdefender Labs -
Catalin Cosoi
Chief Security Researcher -
Dan Lowe
Dan Lowe, an OEM Senior Marketing Manager, has been working with Bitdefender for the last 3 ½ years. His familiarity with multiple security products from Firewalls to Antivirus has provided him a unique perspective on the security industry. -
Ligia Adam
Security Evangelist and Social Media Professional -
Loredana Botezatu
Loredana Botezatu – E-threat Analyst – Loredana has been writing about the IT world and e-security for well over five years. She has made a personal goal out of educating computer users about the ins and outs of the cybercrime ecosystem.