In 2013, around 145,000 new malicious programs were detected for mobile devices, more than twice as many as in 2012, with a total of 40,059 malware samples discovered, according to the results of analyzes by Kaspersky Lab, provider of Endpoint Protection solutions. . Studies also point out that:
- 98.1% of all mobile malware detected in 2013 targeted Android OS devices.
- Cybercriminals used approximately four million malicious apps to distribute mobile malware to Android devices, and a total of ten million malicious Android apps were detected between 2012 and 2013.
- The five countries with the highest number of unique users attacked were: Russia (40%), India (8%), Vietnam (4%), Ukraine (4%) and the United Kingdom (3%). Most of the mobile malware detected in 2013 was aimed at stealing money from users.
- The number of mobile malware modifications designed for phishing, stealing bank card information and money from bank accounts grew by almost 20%.
Banking Trojans are the most dangerous type of mobile malware for users. Some of the cases detected in 2013 aimed to directly steal money from the victim's bank accounts, which significantly increases economic losses.
Vulnerabilities in the Android operating system and its growing popularity are the most important factors in explaining the increase in the number of banking Trojans targeting this environment in 2013. Cybercriminals seem to have a real obsession with this method of making money: at the beginning of the year there were only 64 known banking Trojans, but by the end of 2013 Kaspersky Lab's records had 1,321 unique samples.
“Today, most banking Trojan attacks target users in Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). users, Kaspersky predicts that the activity of online banking Trojans will grow and spread to other countries in 2014. We already know about the case of Perkel, an Android Trojan that attacks customers of several European banks, as well as the malicious program Corea Wroba” , says Victor Chebyshev, virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab.
Sophisticated methods
Vulnerabilities in the Android operating system and its growing popularity are the most important factors in explaining the increase in the number of banking Trojans targeting this environment in 2013. Cybercriminals seem to have a real obsession with this method of making money: at the beginning of the year there were only 64 known banking Trojans, but by the end of 2013 Kaspersky Lab's records had 1,321 unique samples.
“Today, most banking Trojan attacks target users in Russia and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). users, Kaspersky predicts that the activity of online banking Trojans will grow and spread to other countries in 2014. We already know about the case of Perkel, an Android Trojan that attacks customers of several European banks, as well as the malicious program Corea Wroba” , says Victor Chebyshev, virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab.
Sophisticated methods
- Cybercriminals increasingly resort to a method of obfuscation, a deliberate act of creating complex code that is harder to parse. The more complex this method, the longer it takes an antivirus solution to neutralize the malicious code and the more money can be stolen from victims until detection.
- Methods used to infect a mobile device include: compromising legitimate websites and distributing malicious software through alternative app stores and bots (you bots spread by sending text messages with a malicious link to the victim's contacts).
- Cybercriminals use Android vulnerabilities to increase the access privileges of malicious applications, which considerably extend their capabilities and make it more difficult to eliminate malicious programs. The fact that Android vulnerabilities can only be fixed by receiving an update from the device manufacturer only complicates the situation further.
The full report on the evolution of mobile malware can be accessed at www.securelist.com.
EN 
PT 
