F-Secure: Android Accounted For 97% of All Mobile Malware In 2013 193
An anonymous reader writes "Back in 2012, Android accounted for 79 percent of all mobile malware. Last year, that number ballooned even further to 97 percent. Both those data points come from security firm F-Secure, which today released its 40-page Threat Report for the second half of 2013. More specifically, Android malware rose from 238 threats in 2012 to 804 new families and variants in 2013. Apart from Symbian, F-Secure found no new threats for other mobile platforms last year."
saw that coming (Score:1, Interesting)
Not a problem on Android (Score:0, Interesting)
Since everyone says that only stupid people use iPhones, all Android users should have the tech expertise to navigate the malware minefield right? /s
google play .. (Score:1, Interesting)
That is beyond my understanding
Re:welcome to the big time (Score:4, Interesting)
It is not possible to check every application to see if it is harmless or not. Nobody has those kinds of resources.
You do know we're talking about Google, right? Why would Google not have those kinds of resources? They scan the Internet every day, upload an hour of video every second, filter spam for hundreds of millions - better than anybody, and they made Android so they have the inside track on detecting undesirable code.
I think it is 100% accurate to say Android is insecure by design in much the same way DOS era Windows file sharing is 100% insecure by design.
These two things are unrelated. Now you seem to be saying you're complaining about Android security because others complain about the security of your preferred system. That is not relevant. Also, it's a confession that your argument lacks merit. Maybe not the direction you wanted to go.
Android is intended for a mass market audience of people who know nothing about computers or software threats... Knowing this the designers decided the only access controls would be take it or leave it DEMANDS made by APPLICATIONS. This is why Android is insecure by design... it totally and utterly fails to protect the USER in the most basic rudimentary way possible.
Now we are talking about a totally different thing - apps which require excessive permissions. As in, the end user gets to decide how much access he is willing to give each application. This is not malware at all and off topic for the discussion, but let's cover it. This is restraining applications that want to be more than the end user wants them to be, giving the end user full disclosure when an update seeks to do things it didn't do before. You make it sound like a bad thing, when in fact it's an enhancement above the other methods of application security provided by the system that empowers the user to be more restrictive than any algorithm could appropriately be. You make it sound like a bad thing. It's not.