Android Malware

[Essruu]

http://appchronicles.com/before-you-switch-to-android-see-details-on-the-614-increase-in-malware-during-2013/

 

That has to be worrying for Android users.

[ant]

Not if you have a base level of savviness or common sense! Keep the OS up to date, don't download or respond to anything that sounds too good to be true. I run Lookout for the fact it can locate my phone - that it protects as an Antivirus is a bonus.

[trousers]

Not if you have a base level of savviness or common sense!

 

That's c.80% of smart phone users ruled out then....

[hypochondriac]

Never had any problems.

[Pugwash]

Hmmm. Selective reporting from an iOS 'magazine' website.

 

Three-quarters of mobile malware was aimed at non-Android systems in 2010 - presumably a large portion of which was iOS systems.

 

The reason that 92% of mobile malware developers are now concentrating on Android is that they "...are recognizing huge opportunity in the growing market dominance of Android." Same thing happened with Windows and Macs.

 

"The MTC identified more than 500 third-party Android application stores worldwide, most with very low levels of accountability or oversight, that are known to be hosting mobile malware -- preying on unsuspecting mobile users as well as those with jail-broken iOS mobile devices. Of the malicious third-party stores identified by the MTC, three out of five originate from either China or Russia." - If you're stupid enough to stray from the Apple store or Play store, that's what you get.

 

Okay, so: "According to Google, as of June 3, 2013, only four percent of Android phone users were running the latest version of the operating system, which provides mitigation against the most popular class of malware measured by the MTC that makes up 77 percent of Android threats." Of course in two years time or less that will be 100% as people upgrade to newer phones with updated software.

 

All depends what slant a particular reporter puts on these things.