New figures from digital security company Kaspersky Lab show that the number of new malicious programs targeting the Android platform has almost trebled in the past three months. The second quarter of 2012 has seen over 14,900 new malicious programs targeting the Android OS. In Q1 2012 there were just under 5,450.
Nearly half (49%) of these malicious Android apps were described as ‘multi-functional Trojans’ that stole contact data from telephones and could also download additional software. 24% of Android malware was SMS Trojans that send text messages to premium-rate numbers without the owner’s knowledge, while 18% of threats were ‘backdoors’ that could let someone else gain full control over an infected device.
Yuri Namestnikov, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab, said “In the near future, we expect not only more malware, but more effective and dangerous malware targeting Android. Judging from existing trends, we should expect that cybercriminals will soon shift to more personalised attacks. This is primarily about malware hunting for confidential data with which to steal money from users’ credit cards.”
[Kaspersky Lab Q2 IT Threat Evolution report]