Webroot Mobile: Android OS, a Security Concern

Webroot mobile threat review shows impressive rise in mobile malware--especially threats focusing on Android operating system gadgets.

Security providers have been speaking about the disaster of mobile viruses for a few years now. Each year see an impressive raise in recognized viruses over the year before, but users are starting to get a bit negative about the coming mobile viruses apocalypse. A new review from Webroot once again features a rise in mobile viruses and how iOS compares with Android operating system.
The Webroot Threat Research team examined nearly six million mobile applications, and large numbers of mobile attacks between 2011 and 2013 to gather the Webroot Mobile Threat Report. It also analyzed data from around 125,000 customers who triggered Webroot Lost Device Protection (LDP) feature.

Webroot discovered that Android operating system presents a greater security threat than iOS. Webroot recognized a 384 % increase in total threats to Android devices over 2012, and discovered more than 40 % of the Android application examined was classified as harmful, dubious, or undesirable.

By comparison, more than 90 % of the million-plus iOS programs that Webroot evaluated were noticeable as "benign," with 7 % noticeable as "trustworthy," and only a small 1 % recognized as "moderate" threats. The lower instance of dubious or harmful programs is a work of the vetting process developers must go through before applications are made available in the Apple App Shop.

To be reasonable, Android operating system actually had double the programs considered "trustworthy": 14 % compared to only 7 % for iOS. The lack of dubious, harmful, or undesirable programs in iOS is extensive, but there is still a long way to go to get the 92 % "benign" programs over to the "trustworthy" side of the barrier.

Webroot also dug about find out which groups of programs is the biggest security threat. Video arcade and action games represent the highest infection amount on Android operating system by far--more than one and a half times the infection amount of communications programs, which came in second. Entertainment came in third. The high instance of infection among games and entertainment programs shown that attackers identify how most individuals use their mobile phones and tablets, and they are targeting consumers.

Another interesting aspect of the Webroot Mobile Threat Report is the research of how individuals use the Lost Device Protection (LDP) feature in Webroot mobile security products. The most used role was to simply find the device, followed by "scream" to force the device to create a noisy disturbance so you can find it. Nearly one-in-five users remotely locked their device with LDP, and a one-fourth sent a custom SMS message hoping that someone would contact them or return the product. A modest 2 % of LDP activations led to cleaning the product, which is either proof of how often individuals can recover a lost or stolen mobile device, or an indictment of how reckless individuals are when it comes to protecting delicate information on a lost or stolen device.

The main point here is there are several programs out there that do reasons they are not supposed to do and things you probably do not approved of. Ensure that you only get applications from reliable sources like the official Apple App Store and Google Play app store, and pay attention to the authorizations the programs demand to make sure they are not overstepping their range.