Android, Google’s mobile operating system, accounted for 79% of digital threats created for mobile devices in 2012. A year earlier, that figure was 66%, and in 2010, 11%. The data was released this Thursday (7) by F-Secure, a Finnish security software company. The company identified 301 new threats and variants targeting smartphones and tablets exclusively during the year.
Apple’s iOS, the second most popular mobile operating system among smartphones, reached just 0.7% of viruses created for mobile devices. The F-Secure survey also highlighted the decline in threats developed for Nokia’s Symbian. For a long time, devices based on this system dominated sales in the mobile phone market. According to the study, Symbian was targeted by 19% of threats to mobile devices in 2012, compared with 29% in 2011 and 62% in 2010.
In the fourth quarter, a large share of threats created for Android and detected by F-Secure involved malicious programs that install themselves, through various means, on users’ devices. These programs then automatically send text messages (SMS) to numbers registered by cybercriminals in certain countries.
Similar to the old 0900 and known as premium numbers, these services are charged to the customer and the revenues are passed on to hackers by operators, who are unaware of or lack the means to identify and curb this practice. This type of attack is one of the most common on mobile devices. Of the 96 Android threat variants detected by F-Secure between October and December, 21 followed this approach.
Hackers’ broad interest in developing specific threats for Android follows a natural logic of gaining scale: concentrating efforts on the systems with the greatest consumer appeal. According to data from research company Gartner, Android-based devices reached a 69.7% share of total smartphone sales in the fourth quarter. In the same period of 2011, that figure was 51.3%.
Source: G1