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Android Under Malware Siege

  • PC World, Thursday, November 17, 2011 12:46 PM

Since this summer, Google’s Android mobile operating system has experienced a staggering 472% increase in malware samples, PCWorld reports, citing new data from Juniper Networks. Such corruption is undoubtedly a sore subject for any company going up against Apple, and its impeccable record of shielding its PCs and gadgets from malware, spam, and similar threats. Alas, “The free-for-all Android Market has seen a striking increase in the volume of attacks since July,” writes PCWorld.

Only getting worse, October and November actually saw the fastest growth in Android malware discovery since Google’s OS was launched, the Juniper Global Threat Center found. The researchers identified a 28% increase in malware samples in September, which rocketed to a 110% increase in October, and a further 111% in November. “The numbers are even more alarming, considering Juniper also reported a 400 percent spike in Android malware from 2009 to the summer of 2010,” PCWorld points out.

More alarming still, the majority of these malicious Android apps -- 55% -- seem to target users’ personal information stored on phones, while some 44% are SMS Trojans that send background SMS messages to premium rate numbers owned by attackers.

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