McAfee has released the results of its Mobile Security: McAfee Consumer Trends Report, documenting sophisticated and complex risky apps containing multi-faceted scams, black market crimes, drive-by downloads and near-field communication threats. The report highlights that the fraudsters and hackers use apps to steal digital identities, commit financial fraud, and invade users’ privacy on mobile devices.
Mobile platforms have become increasingly attractive to cybercriminals as consumers live more of their digital lives on smart phones and tablets. Using its extensive global threat intelligence network (GTI), McAfee Labs analyzed mobile security data from the last three quarters.
Luis Blando, Vice President, Mobile Product Development, McAfee said, “Despite elevated consumer awareness of threats on mobile platforms, there is still a significant knowledge gap surrounding how and when devices become infected and the level of potential damage. Cybercriminals are exhibiting greater levels of determination and sophistication leading to more destructive, multi-faceted hacks that are harder to spot, and thus warrant a greater degree of security and vigilance. Our goal in releasing this report is to help consumers understand the risks they face and learn ways they can stay safe and compute with confidence on all of their devices.”
As the mobile space evolves, criminals will look at ways to generate revenue from features only mobile devices have. During 2012, about 16 percent of malware families detected by McAfee attempted to get devices to subscribe to premium SMS messages. In 2013, we foresee an increase in threats that will have users finding out they bought premium apps only when they check their bills.
