Android malware problems continue to grow
There's an alarming amount of malicious software targeting Google's Android smartphone platform, but experts say the problem will only get worse until a large share of Android customers experience firsthand the frustration, inconvenience and damage the malware can cause.
"Android malware is growing at an exponential rate, but until a large and significant user base is affected by malware, I fear we won't see any major changes in user behavior," Tim Armstrong, malware researcher for the anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, told SecurityNewsDaily.
Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor with Sophos, put the issue in terms nearly every smartphone customer can relate to: "Most consumers don't care until they get their first $1,000 phone bill because their pirated Angry Birds has been calling Estonia all month."
Both Armstrong and Wisniewski were commenting on a new report from Juniper Networks showing that Android malware has jumped 472 percent in the four months since July 2011.
Despite this astounding uptick in harmful, corrupt software, Android has captured 52.5 percent of the global smartphone market share, according to technology research firm Gartner, with more than 440.5 million units sold in the third quarter (July through September) alone.
So Android malware is clearly a problem. But, like car theft, it's not a real problem until yours is the one that's stolen.
"The average mom and dad don't care," Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer for Massachusetts-based security firm Bit9, told SecurityNewsDaily. The rise in malware will only become a real issue, he said, when a customer "gets a $300 phone bill from premium-rate SMS messages or their identity gets stolen.
"Android malware is growing at an exponential rate, but until a large and significant user base is affected by malware, I fear we won't see any major changes in user behavior," Tim Armstrong, malware researcher for the anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, told SecurityNewsDaily.
Chester Wisniewski, senior security advisor with Sophos, put the issue in terms nearly every smartphone customer can relate to: "Most consumers don't care until they get their first $1,000 phone bill because their pirated Angry Birds has been calling Estonia all month."
Both Armstrong and Wisniewski were commenting on a new report from Juniper Networks showing that Android malware has jumped 472 percent in the four months since July 2011.
Despite this astounding uptick in harmful, corrupt software, Android has captured 52.5 percent of the global smartphone market share, according to technology research firm Gartner, with more than 440.5 million units sold in the third quarter (July through September) alone.
So Android malware is clearly a problem. But, like car theft, it's not a real problem until yours is the one that's stolen.
"The average mom and dad don't care," Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer for Massachusetts-based security firm Bit9, told SecurityNewsDaily. The rise in malware will only become a real issue, he said, when a customer "gets a $300 phone bill from premium-rate SMS messages or their identity gets stolen.
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