While 18% of unprotected mobile Android smartphones contain critical information, such as PINs for bank cards and passwords to online banking systems
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 research data for Europe show that 47% of Android smartphones and 61% of Android tablets are protected by an antivirus solution. Overall, across all devices (regardless of operating system), 26% of smartphones and 43% of tablets are not even protected with a password. The dangerous 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 stated that they are aware of them, but they do not cause them concern.
Even worse is the fact that 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 for social networks, personal and professional email, VPN networks and other sensitive resources. Even if users do not deal with setting a password to stop unauthorized access to their devices, they still store personal email (49%), professional email (18%), as well as "data they would not want anyone to see"» (10%).
According to the survey, Android mobile 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.
At a general level, the corresponding percentages for all portable devices (regardless of operating system) were averaged at 31% (malware), 14% (online service account breaches) and 43% (financial digital attacks).
Source: protothema.gr
