Use Android? Be Careful, Malware Attacks Jump 76 Percent
Malware attacks on Android phones have leaped 76 percent compared to last quarter said security software company McAfee in its second quarter threats report released this week.
In just three months, Android rose from being the third most attacked mobile operating system to the most attacked with things not looking any better down the road.
The problem is poised to get worse for Android as it continues to grow and expand in the smartphone market, eventually making it "the criminals' favorite target," said the report.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Although malware in the mobile world is growing, it is still tiny compared to the PC-based malware.
McAfee reported that during the first half of the year, 12 million unique types of malware were found and that it expected to have a pool of 75 million malware samples by year's end.
PCMag, Apple Insider, and other media outlets report 44 cases of mobile malware attacks to the Android were detected in the second quarter compared to 14 attacks on Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME). The Christian Post couldn't verify the source of these figures, unusually small for this type of activity.
Malware is usually secretly found in disguised apps that appear normal outwardly but contain malicious code. They are uploaded to the Android app store until some user confuses it with another app it is pretending to be.
McAfee reports that the following mobile malware files are the most common which should be removed if found: Smsmecap.A, DrdDreamLite, DroidKungFu, Jmsonez.
