99 percent of mobile threats target Android devices, says Kaspersky report

According to the recently published Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2012, 99 percent of newly discovered mobile malicious programs target the Android platform, with a very small amount targeting Java- and Symbian-based smartphones. 

2012 was the second year to show explosive growth in Android malware. From a negligible eight new unique malicious programs in January 2011, the average monthly discovery rate for new Android malware in 2011 went up to more than 800 samples. In 2012, Kaspersky Lab identified an average of 6, 300 new mobile malware samples every month.

Overall, in 2012 the number of known malicious samples for Android increased more than eight times. The majority of Android malware can be divided into three main groups according to functionality. “SMS Trojans” drain victims’ mobile accounts by sending SMS texts to premium-rate numbers. Backdoors provide unauthorized access to a smartphone, making it possible to install other malicious programs or steal personal data. Spyware targets the unauthorized collection of private data, such as address books and passwords (or even personal photos in some cases). 

In the first half of 2012, Backdoors, SMS Trojans and Spyware combined accounted for 51 percent of all newly discovered Android malware. In the Top Ten chart of Read More