Mobile devices are more popular than ever, but their owners still underestimate the risks they may encounter. According to a survey by Kaspersky Lab and B2B International, 28% of users know nothing or little about mobile malware. And this ignorance is playing into the hands of cybercriminals.
The survey data for Europe shows that only 47% of Android smartphones and 61% of Android tablets are protected by an antivirus solution. In fact, across all devices (regardless of operating system), 26% of smartphones and 43% of tablets are not even protected by a password. The risky behavior of users may stem from the fact that 27% of Europeans are unaware of the existence of digital threats targeting mobile devices and 26% of respondents said they are aware of them but are not concerned.
Even worse, 18% of unprotected Android smartphones contain exactly the information attackers want to find, namely PIN codes for bank cards, passwords for online banking systems and other financial data. 24% store passwords to social networks, personal and work emails, VPN networks and other sensitive resources. Even if users do not bother to set a password to stop unauthorized access to their devices, they still store personal emails (49%), work emails (18%), as well as “data that they would not want anyone to see” (10%) on their smartphones.
According to the survey, Android device users face threats more often than Windows device users*. The latter also seem to be more aware of mobile threats and tend to protect their devices in 9 out of 10 cases. Thus, the survey found that over a 12-month period, 41% of Android smartphone users and 36% of Android tablet users encountered malicious applications. Accordingly, 18% of Android smartphone users and 24% of Android tablet users had their online service accounts compromised, while financial cyberattacks affected 43% of smartphone users and 50% of tablet users with this operating system. Overall, the corresponding rates for all mobile devices (regardless of operating system) averaged 31% (malware), 14% (online service account breach) and 43% (financial cyberattacks). These sizes are significantly lower than the sizes for Android devices only.
“It is no surprise that mobile device users are often faced with online threats. Devices are now capable of performing many more tasks and many more people are using them. So it is natural that they also attract scammers. To avoid falling victim to fraud, users should protect their devices against digital threats and be especially careful with the sensitive data they store on them,” said Victor Yablokov, Head of Mobile Product Line at Kaspersky Lab.
Kaspersky Internet Security for Android protects Android devices from both known and emerging mobile threats. In addition to anti-malware and anti-phishing protection, it also includes “Anti-Theft” and “Privacy Protection” technologies. The solution does not significantly affect the operating system’s performance or battery life.
To fill the knowledge gap among users, Kaspersky Lab has created a video on the evolution of mobile threats. More information, including data on mobile threats, the different types of threats and infection methods, is available in the report “The Enemy on your Phone” on Kaspersky Lab’s Securelist.com.
*Hereinafter, it will refer to users who have marked a device, which runs on a given platform, as their primary device for accessing the Internet. As there is a possibility of using several devices, different platforms at the same time, users may face the threats mentioned in the text on any of them.
