Topic: Android malware leaps by 76%

[Simon]

New threats against Android phones leapt by 76% in the last quarter, according to security firm McAfee.

The company's quarterly threat report claimed that Android was now the fastest-growing vector for mobile malware as the popularity of handsets running Google's mobile OS makes them more attractive to attackers.

"This quarter the count of new Android-specific malware moved to number one, with J2ME (Java Micro Edition), coming in second while suffering only a third as much malware," the company said in its quarterly threat report.

"This increase in threats to such a popular platform should make us evaluate our behaviour on mobile devices."

Read more: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/security/369469/android-malware-leaps-by-76

[Rik]

Inevitable, I suppose...

[Simon]

Data like this, from security firms, shouldn't be ignored, but should equally be regarded with a small pinch of salt, as you can usually guarantee that the security firm in question will have a protection app that it's trying to flog.

[Rik]

Why else fund the research?

[Simon]

True.

[sam]

its simple, just get software from the marketplace. Ok, its not like apples, but I'm sure google have a team going over things.

[Simon]

Do they, though?  I thought there were a few bad apps that got into the marketplace, then Google pulled them afterwards. 

[sam]

They did pull aftwards, but after that I expect things got stricter

[Simon]

Yup, and I guess, when they say "leaps by 76%", 76% of very few is still very few.

[sam]

Yep