Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A New Instance of Android Malware is Discovered Every 10 Seconds, Say Researchers (9to5google.com)

Posted by msmash on from the story-of-our-lives dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Security firm G Data says that a new piece of Android malware is discovered every 10 seconds. At this rate, the company is predicting that there will be 3,500,000 new malicious Android files by the end of the year. "The threat level for users with smartphones and tablets with an Android operating system remains high. In all, the G DATA security experts expect around 3.5 million new Android malware apps for 2017," they said. The firm said that the risk was heightened by the fact that only a small minority of users are on the latest version of Android.

4 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. Are we at the point yet by sl3xd · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That we can accept as a community that Android has a serious problem that needs solving, and needs to join its competition in the leper colony?

    --
    -- Sometimes you have to turn the lights off in order to see.
    1. Re:Are we at the point yet by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No.

      Most of the "discovered" malware is in APKs (where's the Appy App Guy?) that is on sources other than the Google Play Store. You have to want to be infected to be infected. Kind a like saying "My google was hacked" during the last few days, when the reality is, you "allowed" it to be installed.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    2. Re:Are we at the point yet by Mordaximus · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That we can accept as a community that Android has a serious problem that needs solving, and needs to join its competition in the leper colony?

      Walled gardens aren't a solution to the problem. The piece of the puzzle that keeps the platform you alluded to less vulnerable is that OS updates are available at the same time, for every supported device. While with android (with some notable exceptions) you are at the whim of the telcos AND vendors to get updates, if you ever do. The fractured landscape is the major issue.

    3. Re:Are we at the point yet by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That is true. However, it is *also* true that the various players in the industry (the software developers as well as the vendors) operated under the belief that they could motivate people to continuously buy a new phone every 2 or 3 years. They were banking on huge profits from profligate spending.

      Most people don't want to burn through that kind of money! Their phone still works, so sticking with it is frugal and wise! But they can't upgrade the android version, because the phone provider won't support upgrades anymore, or the hardware is not compatible with the next major upgrade, and the software provider won't backport the security fixes to the older versions of android.

      So now they must shell out hundreds of dollars just to get a free security patch. Fuck that, it's a raw deal.

      I have gone back to a dumb phone. It has talk, text, calendar, camera, music, calculator etc... and cost me a whopping $20. No security worries. But OMG no Internet! The world is gonna end! I only have access to a desktop or laptop all day at work and all day at home, so I can't use Internet when I am travelling between! What ever will I do???