Android malware to increase in 2013: ESET

A shocking revelation has been made. With the latest update, Google’s Android operating platform is emerging as a soft target for spreading viruses. ESET predicts that this trend will further rise in the year ahead in India.

Malware for mobile phones was marked a main trend of 2012 in last year’s ESET report. This time researcher focused on malware for Android OS as the market share of Android mobile phones have been increasing dramatically.

According to stats released by IDC, in Q1 2012 Android recorded a year-over-year rise of 145 per cent in market share. Furthermore, Juniper in its whitepaper “Banking Anytime Anywhere.” estimates that in 2013, the number of users accessing banking services from their smartphones will rise to 530 million people. According to the same study, in 2011 there were only 300 million individuals who accessed banks from their phones.

According to Pankaj Jain, Director at ESET India, “There are over 27 million smartphone users in India, according to different estimations. Though it comes to about only 3 percent of total mobile phone users in the country, we see the huge growth of smartphones’ usage. Moreover, even the majority of cheap handsets run Android OS. Although we didn’t register many cases of Android malware in India, comparing to some other countries, once Indian will start actively using their mobiles for online shopping, banking, etc. the picture will change immediately”.

ESET study further highlights another trend that the malware propagation by means of removable storage devices is decreasing globally in favor of the use of an intermediary in order to attract new victims.