Android Malware Infestation a Fast Growing Problem, Report Says
The bigger your market share, the more your platform will be targeted by malware writers, and that could spell trouble for Android. According to data from research firm Gartner, Android in the third quarter of 2011 landed on three times as many smartphones as iOS, which isn't surprising when you consider everyone and their uncle is allowed to build a device around Google's open source platform. But what might be shocking is the amount of foul files infecting the platform.
New data published by Juniper Networks shows a whopping 472 percent increase in Android malware samples since July. Yikes! A little more than half of those threats are spyware, while 44 percent are classified as SMS Trojan horses, Juniper says.
All the gory details are listed in a ginormous infographic (see here), and it's not pretty. Malware isn't an idle threat, and according to Juniper, more than three-fourths of all Android smartphone and tablet users access sensitive business information from their Android devices.
In a related blog post, Juniper said it discovered a "trove of malicious applications aimed at Android users hosted across different Russia-based third party app stores," which serves as a reminder to only download Android apps from trusted locations, like Google's Android Market, Amazon, etc.
New data published by Juniper Networks shows a whopping 472 percent increase in Android malware samples since July. Yikes! A little more than half of those threats are spyware, while 44 percent are classified as SMS Trojan horses, Juniper says.
All the gory details are listed in a ginormous infographic (see here), and it's not pretty. Malware isn't an idle threat, and according to Juniper, more than three-fourths of all Android smartphone and tablet users access sensitive business information from their Android devices.
In a related blog post, Juniper said it discovered a "trove of malicious applications aimed at Android users hosted across different Russia-based third party app stores," which serves as a reminder to only download Android apps from trusted locations, like Google's Android Market, Amazon, etc.
