Ride the Lightning

Smartphone Malware is On the Rise

April 4, 2017

And not just by a little bit. A recent SC Media post noted that Nokia researchers have said threat actors are shifting from traditional to mobile malware after spotting an 83 percent uptick in the increase of smartphone infections in the second half of 2016.

The Nokia Threat Intelligence Report also noted that Android devices continue to be the main mobile platform targeted for infection. The Android app market consists of hundreds of third-party app stores in addition to Google Play (itself pretty safe), which provide thousands of other outlets in which Android users can download malicious apps.

All apps on Apple devices come from the Apple store making it more difficult to infect Apple users.

It's not just phones either. The report states that other mobile devices are also under attack. One of the most common methods of infecting users is by embedding the malware inside popular games to entice the users to download it onto their devices.

Why the rise in mobile malware? Mobile devices are becoming the platform of choice for Internet access. Go where the potential victims are, right?

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