20% of "smart" devices running Android software worldwide were attacked by malware at least once between August 2013 and July 2014.
This is revealed by the data of a study carried out by Interpol, in collaboration with the electronic security systems company Kaspersky Lab.
As highlighted in the study, called Mobile cyber-threats, the most widespread method of attack was the use of SMS Trojans. In short, the use of malicious programs that send text messages to premium-rate numbers, without the device owner knowing it. It is noted that the research 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 primarily targeted at users from Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine, and Germany. This is largely 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 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%.
Roman Unuchek, lead malware and virus analyst for Kaspersky Lab, emphasized: “We often hear experts say that Android users don’t need to worry because the number of attacks is not significant, even though malware for this operating system appears regularly.
Until recently, this comment could have been considered reasonable. However, the situation has changed dramatically in the last year – and not for the better.”.
For his part, Dr. Maidan Oberoi, Director of Cyberspace and Innovation at INTERPOL, commented: “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 incorporated into a technologically advanced form.".
Source: newsit.gr
