Report: 99 Percent of New Mobile Threats Target Android 269
MojoKid writes: "Google's open source Android platform has the distinction of being the most popular mobile operating system in the world. That's great in terms of dominating the market and reaping the rewards that come with it, but it's also for that very reason that Android finds itself the target of virtually every new mobile malware threat that emerges. According to data published in F-Secure's latest Mobile Threat Report (PDF), over 99 percent of the new mobile threats it discovered in the first quarter of 2014 targeted Android users. To be fair, we're not taking about hundreds of thousands, tens of thousands, or thousands of malware threats — F-Secure detected 277 new threat families, of which 275 honed in on Android."
Re:secure from what? (Score:1, Interesting)
This is probably worse for iOS than being insecure.
Their marketshare has fallen so far it's not worth targeting them any more.
Re:secure from what? (Score:5, Interesting)
fwiw, the NSA has owned all platforms, so it's not like iOS is invincible.
I strongly suspect that it has less to do with any flaws in either OS, than it does in the fact that iPhones get regular updates/patches/etc, whereas the vast majority of Android phones do not.
This is the one thing that Apple really should get props for - they go out of their way to ensure that, within reason, older iPhones get patched/updated along with the newest ones. Meanwhile, all but a relatively tiny fraction of (global) Android users buy models where neither carrier or manufacturer really give a damn if the phones they sell ever see a patch. I mean, seriously - the cheap/low-end Android phones can still be found coming out brand new with 2.2/2.3 installed on the damned things.
Until that paradigm changes, the massive majority of malware and hacks will target the obviously juicy (and mostly obsolete and/or unpatched) Android market.
Re:Market Share (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Market Share (Score:4, Interesting)
The problem is, Google Play isn't available in a lot of places where Android is. Say China, for example.
China's especially touching because the Chinese app stores are complete rubbish - full of pirated apps and Trojans and other crap.
But even in North America or Europe, sticking with Google Play is limiting, because there are tons of legit app stores as well. Say, Humble Bundle or Amazon. But the problem is the checkbox is all or nothing - either you only use Google Play, or you allow everything.
The problem with "let the user decide" is it ignores the ultimate reality of security - Dancing Pigs [wikipedia.org]. Basically a user cannot be trusted with their own security - they will always choose the least secure path if it gets them what they want. So if their friend shows them a new app they have to install manually, well, they'll do it.
Hell, even on iOS jailbroken users get broken into constantly. Because they install OpenSSH, usually because some HOWTO said to install it. There have been many iOS worms and Trojans that exploit the fact that if you can SSH into an iOS device, it's jailbroken so you can do many more things.
Re:It's beyond me why any new OS isn't virus immun (Score:1, Interesting)