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Report: 99 Percent of New Mobile Threats Target Android
MojoKid writes: "Google's open source Android platform has the distinction of being the most popular mobile operating system in the world. That's great in terms of dominating the market and reaping the rewards that come with it, but it's also for that very reason that Android finds itself the target of virtually every new mobile malware threat that emerges. According to data published in F-Secure's latest Mobile Threat Report (PDF), over 99 percent of the new mobile threats it discovered in the first quarter of 2014 targeted Android users. To be fair, we're not taking about hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, or thousands of malware threats — F-Secure detected 277 new threat families, of which 275 honed in on Android."
When Apple gets the market share that Android has, you'll see that Apple gets as many attacks as Android does.
Not even close.
Try 78% and 15%, in favor of Android.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/0...
fwiw, the NSA has owned all platforms, so it's not like iOS is invincible.
I strongly suspect that it has less to do with any flaws in either OS, than it does in the fact that iPhones get regular updates/patches/etc, whereas the vast majority of Android phones do not.
This is the one thing that Apple really should get props for - they go out of their way to ensure that, within reason, older iPhones get patched/updated along with the newest ones. Meanwhile, all but a relatively tiny fraction of (global) Android users buy models where neither carrier or manufacturer really give a damn if the phones they sell ever see a patch. I mean, seriously - the cheap/low-end Android phones can still be found coming out brand new with 2.2/2.3 installed on the damned things.
Until that paradigm changes, the massive majority of malware and hacks will target the obviously juicy (and mostly obsolete and/or unpatched) Android market.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
This is probably worse for iOS than being insecure.
Their marketshare has fallen so far it's not worth targeting them any more.
Speaking as an iOS user, I'm perfectly fine with you Android users getting all of the malware love. No really... you can keep all of it... I don't want any!
This comment reminds me of the people on Apple Support Communities who insisted that FlashBack was not actually a thing, that it was not infecting any systems, anywhere, and it was all just a big myth created by AV companies to sell product.
Meanwhile I was spending a day each week clearing FlashBack off dozens of infected student systems because the kids were too &*(@#$ stupid to not whack the monkey or whatever stupid thing they did in order to get infected (and god help us if we didn't give them administrative privileges, you don't want to hear the caterwauling they make at the slightest hint of restrictions).
See, apparently I'm in the employ of AV companies and didn't know it. My bank account never noticed it either.
Moof!
That's great in terms of dominating the market and reaping the rewards that come with it,
Hmm, I guess you've not seen the $ that Androids competitors bring in directly and for their developers.
the cheap/low-end Android phones can still be found coming out brand new with 2.2/2.3 installed on the damned things
BS
A lot of the malware exists because people can sideload apps. I would rather continue being able to pirate apps than pay for them.
Fixed that for you, and the vast majority of Slashdotters.
the cheap/low-end Android phones can still be found coming out brand new with 2.2/2.3 installed on the damned things
BS
I was surprised, but you're right: when I looked at the pre-paid devices offered by several mobile providers, I didn't find any that were being sold with a pre-4.x OS version. It is no doubt still possible to buy old Android phones with old Android versions, but even cheap devices by Huawei and ZTE are now coming out with Android 4.x
Unfortunately, because manufacturers often provide very poor ongoing support for devices, a large number of devices already in the market will never be updated. In that way, I agree with the parent's parent: Apple can get props (relative to many Android device manufacturers) for providing relatively long term OS/security updates.
Malware for Android is no different from malware for Windows or for OS X, the bulk of it is due to being able to run any code you want (where unless you wrote it you probably don't know what it does) and most people will just click through warnings about unsigned code, virtually none will ever vet any code ever.
Absolutely 100% incorrect. I don't think you understand android that well. Android will refuse to run unsigned apps - they MUST have a signature, though there is no certificate authority they have to go through. But, apps with differing signatures can't interfere with one another. This means that malware app A can't steal or inject information into facebook app B. However facebook app C can manipulate facebook app B if that's what the publisher who holds the keys wants it to do. You are free to alter these rules on your own if you'd like, either through rooting or putting your own signature on both APKs. Neither involves a simple warning that you have to click through; it's a rather manual process. This results in Android being inherently very secure by design.
The flip side of that is that on iOS you place all your trust in Apple to make sure that they vet code properly, by and large they do a pretty good job of that but that isn't to say they couldn't have a major slipup (in the style of goto-fail) in the future.
Wrong again; Apple already has made a major slipup. In fact they've made a few of them, the most recent being this one:
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
And of course, that is only what's known. Apple users assume that everything they do is 100% secure once vetted by Apple, but they couldn't be more wrong. iOS has a "city wall" but no guards to maintain order inside of the gates. Anybody with any security background will tell you why this is a horrible idea, as opposed to a layered security model, which is what Android sticks to.
Generally if you live in a first world country, malware on Android isn't a problem in the slightest. Most first worlders don't sideload apps, except for pirates, power users, and developers. In third world countries, especially China, piracy is often the first choice for obtaining software rather than getting it through app stores. It's in these countries where the malware is common.
US users who buy antivirus software for Android are flat out wasting their money. Malware found on the Play store is removed from your device by play services when it is identified; so just by that alone you already have all of the malware protection you need. The only people who really need that are the ones who pirate their apps (and you can pirate safely, but it's inherently less safe to do so because you can't validate the original publisher's signature) however chances are if you already pirate your apps, you probably aren't terribly interested in paying for an antivirus app to begin with.
Nonetheless, what I said above won't stop companies like F-Secure from giving sensationalist figures like "99% of malware is aimed at android," because their product can't sell unless they're somehow able to scare their users into buying it. The same is true of ID theft services such as lifelock that don't actually do anything as well as ripoff home security services like ADT and Brinks.
I use Windows Phone and get 0% malware. The 1% goes to IOS.
Windows is indeed getting better. ;)
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
Obviously if you restrict yourself to the Google Play store it is very much the same thing as using an iOS device which is restricted to the Apple App Store. But that negates the biggest advantage of Android.
Say you restrict yourself to Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore, Humble Bundle, F-Droid, and applications you compiled yourself. Is the advantage still negated? In my opinion, the advantage of Android's "Unknown sources" and "adb install" model is 1. compiling apps yourself without having to replace your desktop computer and pay a recurrring fee, and 2. ability of third-party app stores to build a reputation for quality control.
This "99%" statistic for Android comes up every now and then, and what makes up for most of it, is the hazy third-party app repositories. If you stay in the selection of Google Play, you will mostly have your ass covered.