According to the results of the global “Mobile cyber-threats” survey conducted by Kaspersky Lab and INTERPOL, one in five Android devices was attacked by malware at least once during the period August 2013 – July 2014. The most common method of attack was the use of SMS Trojans, i.e. malicious programs that send text messages to premium-rate numbers, without the device owner’s knowledge. It is noted that the survey was based on data obtained from devices with Kaspersky Lab solutions installed.
A total of 1,000,000 Android device users encountered malicious software from August 2013 to July 2014. This figure corresponds to approximately 1/5 of all device users with Kaspersky Lab products. In fact, this period saw the highest number of digital attacks in recent years.
Attacks on Android devices were mainly targeted at users from Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine and Germany. This is mainly due to the fact that users in these countries often pay for content and online services via SMS. For cybercriminals, this is an attractive way to make money through malicious attacks, as they can use these services to quickly and anonymously transfer money from prepaid mobile device accounts to third-party bank accounts.
In Eastern Europe, Kaspersky Lab recorded the most mobile malware attacks in Ukraine (44% of all attacks in the region), Poland (23%), Turkey (11%) and Romania (8%). Greece completes the top five with 7%.
The main reason for the increase in the number of attacks and users who have been attacked was the use of Trojan-SMS programs. These attacks accounted for 57.08% of the total attacks detected by Kaspersky Lab security solutions for Android devices. In second place were RiskTools (21.52%). These are legal, under certain conditions, programs that can, however, be used for malicious purposes (sending notifications for paid messages, transmitting geographic data, etc.). “Aggressive advertising” applications (pop-ups, notifications in the status bar, etc.) were in third place with 7.37%.
In Eastern Europe, the situation is similar. Trojan-SMS programs were the most prevalent, accounting for 52% of attacks, followed by RiskTools with 32% and AdWare with 6%.
“We often hear experts say that Android users don’t need to worry because the number of attacks is not significant, although malware for this operating system appears regularly. Until recently, this comment could be considered reasonable. However, the situation has changed dramatically over the past year – and not for the better,” said Roman Unuchek, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab.
However, things were not entirely pessimistic throughout the research. In particular, in April 2014, Kaspersky Lab experts observed a significant decrease in the total number of attacks, which was mainly due to a significant drop in the number of Trojan-SMS attacks. This may have been a result of new rules introduced by the Russian telecommunications regulator regarding services paid for via SMS. Based on these new rules, all telecommunications providers in Russia will now have to receive a confirmation message from each subscriber who tries to pay for services via SMS. Since July 2014, the number of attacks has started to increase again. It is therefore possible that the new legislation contributed to the drop in April, indirectly confirming the effectiveness of legislation against digital fraud.
“The INTERPOL and Kaspersky Lab report highlights the dominant threats and trends that occurred in 2013 and 2014. This report highlights once again that digital crime is not just a new form of crime. What we are seeing here is that the model and structure of traditional organized crime has been integrated into a technologically advanced form,” said Dr. Madan Oberoi, Director of Cyber Innovation & Outreach at INTERPOL.
More information about the “Mobile cyber-threats” Lab research is available on the Securelist.com.
