Malware on Android-based mobile devices increased 35 percent in the second quarter, a rate of growth not seen since early 2012, network security software provider McAfee says in its second quarter threats report issued yesterday.
The report says that backdoor Trojans and banking malware were the most popular threats in the quarter, adding that new Android threat samples are on track for a record year.
 |
“The mobile cybercrime landscape is becoming more defined as cybergangs determine which tactics are most effective and profitable,” says the report, McAfee Threats Report: Second Quarter 2013.
McAfee says its researchers found several common mobile strategies used by cyber thieves to obtain money and confidential information from victims, including banking malware, trojanized apps, fraudulent dating apps and fake tools.
The report also says that ransomware threats are on the rise.
“Ransomware, which holds a computer hostage until a victim pays a fee to free it, is a bad problem getting worse,” the report says. “Not only do criminals make relatively safe money from this scheme, they often do not remove their malware, leaving the poor victim’s system as dead as before.”
The report also says that there was a 16 percent increase in suspicious URLs and a 50 percent increase in digitally-signed malware samples.
McAfee is a subsidiary of Intel [INTC].