Mobile ransomware is as powerful as PC ransomware
We're nearing the end of the year, and the annual reports are about to flood in. One of the first to come out is from Blue Coat, and it showcases the top threat trends and infection sources for mobile devices.
While in 2014 the main source of infection was mobile ads with a "market share" of 19.69%, in 2015 pornographic applications and websites have managed to represent 36.13% of all infected mobile users.
This number is much higher than in 2013, 22.16%, when pornography websites topped the list as the main source of infections on mobile devices.
Blue Coat says that, most often, infections come through malicious attacks, and through sites that distribute pornographic applications that hide trojans in their code.
Ransomware is becoming a big problem for mobile devices
In previous years, mobile ransomware wasn't a big enough problem, mainly due to its simplicity.
Most of them were fairly easy to bypass and remove, but in recent months, after many years of failures, combined with developments in the capabilities of the Android OS, today's world of ransomware is as dangerous as that on computers.
In recent months, security vendors and antivirus companies have begun to notice ransomware with file encryption capabilities, C&C server connections, rootkits, and lockscreens that are more difficult to remove.
Put together ransomware, pornography, and the Tor network, and you have mobile threats that are as dangerous and difficult to remove as they are on desktops.
“The creators of mobile ransomware exploit the anonymity of the Tor network to obscure their true destination and the payment of ransom. It is not uncommon to see “.onion” addresses used in ransom demands,” say Bleu Coat researchers. “Victims have very little time before the deadline to pay, and their valuable files are lost forever.”
