Kaspersky Lab: More than 200,000 mobile malware for Android & Co.

The times when malware was only a threat to Windows computers are long gone. Meanwhile, the online crime has hit Google’s mobile operating system Android.


This is also illustrated by the report from the anti-virus manufacturer Kaspersky Lab, which according to own data now knows more than 200,000 mobile pirates. The majority of newer malware targets Android and accounts for over 98 percent of the total amount of mobile malware.


The shares of the Java (J2ME) and Symbian malware consist of legacy malware, from malware from the early days of mobile malware. Kaspersky Lab has discovered more than 100,000 mobile malware in 2013, of which about 50,000 in the last two months of the past year and almost 20,000 in October.


The company therefore also speaks of an exponential growth of pest numbers. The comparison with Windows malware shows, however, that the situation at the PC is far worse: here, Kaspersky Lab processes more than 300,000 malware files a day.


The tendency in the almost exclusively Trojan horses consist of mobile malware going towards bot networks. Already, about 55 percent of the known mobile pirates are building Android-based bot networks.


The classic SMS Trojans account for about 33 percent, while 21 percent contain a backdoor. Mobile malware has become multifunctional, SMS Trojan was developed to bot malware. This trend is expected to intensify in 2017.


As in the PC sector, bots and tablets infected with bots are leased or sold by the bot masters to other online criminals. This is how massive personal data are attacked, DDoS attacks are executed or special malicious programs are installed, such as adware.


The main purpose of mobile malware is, however, the looting of bank accounts of victims - data theft ranked second. The perpetrators closely monitor the development of online and mobile banking.


They adapt their techniques for the Cyber-Bankspot quickly. You will immediately check whether the smartphone is linked to a credit card during a new infection of a mobile device. Smartphone and tablet users would be well equipped to equip their Android devices with appropriate protection programs. Such apps are now available from all well-known antivirus manufacturers, sometimes even free of charge.