Mobile malware surges this year, almost 700 percent over 2011 numbers
Getting your data back might cost you bigtime. Same for not having “those pictures” spread all over the internet. And that’s just one of the new attack vectors targeting Android phones in the past few months, accordingto security firm McAfee.
Mobile malware has exploded this year, growing almost 700 percent over 2011 numbers. Almost all of it, perhaps 85 percent, targets smartphones running Android.
The attacks range from the traditional and fairly well known email-with-bogus-attachments to the downright Machiavellian: drive-by downloads. Similarly to desktop drive-bys, simply visiting a site initiates the attack.
Users still need to authorize an install, but as McAfee says, “when an attacker names the file Android System Update 4.0.apk, most suspicions vanish.”