14 DAY TRIAL // At the moment, there are over one million mobile malware and high-risk apps out there, affecting various platforms, with Android being the most targeted of them all.
A recent article on Trend Micro’s blog unveils a significant increase in mobile malware from 700 thousand malicious and risky apps in the second quarter of the year to over one million of them in the third quarter.
Most of these apps are destined for the Android market, and TrendLabs suggests that their number could pass beyond the one-million mark before the end of the year.
The Trend Micro Mobile App Reputation Service feedback also unveiled that “there are now 1 million mobile malware (such as premium service abusers) and high-risk apps (apps that aggressively serve ads that lead to dubious sites),” the aforementioned blog post reads.
Apparently, 75 percent of the aforementioned questionable mobile applications perform outright malicious routines, while 25 percent of them exhibit dubious routines, such as adware.
Furthermore, said post continues explaining that families such as FAKEINST (34%) and OPFAKE (30%) are the top mobile malware at the moment.
“FAKEINST malware are typically disguised as legitimate apps. They are also premium service abusers, which sends unauthorized text messages to certain numbers and register users to costly services,” Trend Micro notes.
“One high-profile incident involving FAKEINST is the fake Bad Piggies versions, which we found right after the game’s release.”
The OPFAKE malware, which resembles FAKEINST, is also mimicking legitimate apps, but there is a variant (ANDROIDOS_OPFAKE.CTD) that was found to actually open an .HTML file that leads users into downloading a possibly malicious file.
“On the high-risk apps front, ARPUSH and LEADBOLT lead the pack, gathering 33% and 27% of the total number, respectively. Both are known adware and infostealers, collecting device-related data such as OS information, GPS location, IMEI etc,” the company also explains.
In addition to risky apps and malware, mobile users are also exposed to attacks aimed at their banking transactions. Users should keep themselves safe by installing security software on their devices, and through carefully reading details on apps before installing them.
However, despite the fact that the number of malware on mobiles in general and on Android in particular is on the rise, many users do not protect their smartphones. Apparently, over half of Android users do not use a security application.