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."

Comments

Market Share

[presspass]

When Apple gets the market share that Android has, you'll see that Apple gets as many attacks as Android does.

Re:Market Share

[BasilBrush]

Of course Apple used to be the market share leader. But Android also had most malware back then too.

It has nothing to do with market share. It's about security. The difference is a single curated market for Apple, vs multiple markets and no curation for Android.

Re:Market Share

[Anubis IV]

I keep seeing this line trotted out, but it only serves to distract from the real issue.

What I've seen time and again from these reports over the last year is that it isn't about Android vs. iOS: it's about app stores. The Google Play store, for instance, has been the source of very few malware incidents (i.e. something like 2-3% of the total). Most of the malware hitting Android is coming from third-party stores that are of questionable trustworthiness. As always, users should be advised to only install software from sources they trust. If iOS allowed users to install from third-party stores without jailbreaking, we'd be seeing the same problems on iOS, regardless of their current marketshare or lack thereof (besides which, marketshare is a measure that shouldn't be used in isolation when assessing the worth of a platform's users to developers, including malware developers).

So, please, stop painting this as an iOS vs. Android thing. Regardless of platform, the users being affected by this stuff, in general, are those grabbing apps from untrustworthy sources. Focus your attention there.

Re:Market Share

[John Bokma]

Feel free to provide those. But since it's roughly 50/50 in the USA why aren't the attacks in the USA also not 50/50? Or is the USA of no interest at all to malware writers? (I would say the opposite).

Re:Market Share

[tlhIngan]

What I've seen time and again from these reports over the last year is that it isn't about Android vs. iOS: it's about app stores. The Google Play store, for instance, has been the source of very few malware incidents (i.e. something like 2-3% of the total). Most of the malware hitting Android is coming from third-party stores that are of questionable trustworthiness. As always, users should be advised to only install software from sources they trust. If iOS allowed users to install from third-party stores without jailbreaking, we'd be seeing the same problems on iOS, regardless of their current marketshare or lack thereof (besides which, marketshare is a measure that shouldn't be used in isolation when assessing the worth of a platform's users to developers, including malware developers).

So, please, stop painting this as an iOS vs. Android thing. Regardless of platform, the users being affected by this stuff, in general, are those grabbing apps from untrustworthy sources. Focus your attention there.

The problem is, Google Play isn't available in a lot of places where Android is. Say China, for example.

China's especially touching because the Chinese app stores are complete rubbish - full of pirated apps and Trojans and other crap.

But even in North America or Europe, sticking with Google Play is limiting, because there are tons of legit app stores as well. Say, Humble Bundle or Amazon. But the problem is the checkbox is all or nothing - either you only use Google Play, or you allow everything.

The problem with "let the user decide" is it ignores the ultimate reality of security - Dancing Pigs. Basically a user cannot be trusted with their own security - they will always choose the least secure path if it gets them what they want. So if their friend shows them a new app they have to install manually, well, they'll do it.

Hell, even on iOS jailbroken users get broken into constantly. Because they install OpenSSH, usually because some HOWTO said to install it. There have been many iOS worms and Trojans that exploit the fact that if you can SSH into an iOS device, it's jailbroken so you can do many more things.

Re:Market Share

[John Bokma]

http://tabtimes.com/resources/... begs to differ. Or so it seems... And http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...

Re:Market Share

[amicusNYCL]

In the smartphone market, the US still comprises a decently large slice of the pie

The US numbers show iOS at 42%, and Android at 51%. The worldwide numbers show iOS at 15.5%, and Android at 78.9%. So, there's your difference. Links stolen from above:

http://www.comscoredatamine.co...
http://www.engadget.com/2014/0...

Those worldwide numbers are from 2013 though, so I expect that iOS would have continued to shrink over the past 4 months, there's no reason it would have gone up.

particularly at the high end of the market where the more valuable users tend to reside.

News flash: there are more high-end smartphones that run Android then there are that run iOS. Welcome to 2012.

Saying that more malware targets Android than does iOS is the same as saying more targets Windows than MacOS. It's a market share issue, again.

Re:Market Share

[jo_ham]

no curation for Android

Untrue. By default you have Play, Google's curated app store. You can install other app stores or side load, but the default is just Play.

With great power comes great responsibility and all that. Besides which Apple's App Store isn't devoid of malware either, it's just a different kind of malware. My girlfriend is Chinese and there are a lot of Chinese apps, presumably not even visible in the western version of the store, that look extremely iffy. They ask you for random personal details, direct you to nasty looking web sites, and have masses of rip-off in-app purchases and pay-to-win scenarios.

You realise if an Apple user tried to spin that line in a story where 99% of malware was targeted at iOS they would be down modded into the ground, right?

"Here's tangible, documented proof of 99% of malware being on Android, but hey, some Chinese apps on iOS 'look a bit suspicious' so Apple is bad too!"

Laughable. Truly laughable.

Re:Market Share

[Solandri]

Of course Apple used to be the market share leader. But Android also had most malware back then too.

Apple was never the market share leader. The press just fawns over them like they were/are.

Re:They are not much different

[MatthiasF]

Not even close.

Try 78% and 15%, in favor of Android.

http://www.engadget.com/2014/0...

Re:secure from what?

[Penguinisto]

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.

Re:secure from what?

[Anonymous Coward]

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!

Re:secure from what?

[tepples]

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.