We’ve all seen story after story warning us that this app records and uploads calls or that app is spying on you in Android. One thing people in the modding community love is the open source nature of the platform and the open attitude of Google. MS was criticized for taking a very closed Apple-like route with Windows Phone 7, and Apple has always been criticized by some for their strict App Store qualifications.
Well it seems that this has backfired on Android with regards to malware. MacAfee reports that Android malware threads leapt 76% in Q2 of 2011. This is not good news for Google and they want to rethink they’re “everything open” policy, especially regarding their looser standards on the Android Market.
“This year we’ve seen record breaking numbers of malware, especially on mobile devices, where the uptick is in direct correlation to popularity,” says Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs.
“Overall attacks are becoming more stealthy and more sophisticated, suggesting that we could see attacks that remain unnoticed for longer periods of time. High-profile hacktivist groups have also changed the landscape by drawing a line between attacks for personal gain and attacks meant to send a message.”
In the report you see the following graph comparing mobile platforms with their respective new malware percentage. As you can see, Android has a very large piece of the pie!
One reason some users prefer iOS and WP7 to Android is the security these platforms offer over Android. Any mobile OS can be hacked into, every one of them has vulnerabilities, but it seems Android is rife with malware and this doesn’t look to be changing any time soon.
One other thing the report mentions that I found interesting was that MS threats are tiny compared to Adobe.
This isn’t something you might expect, but remember the latest untethered iOS jailbreak relies on a PDF exploit and did the last web based jailbreak created by famed iOS hacker Comex.
Does this affect your buying decisions? Are you concerned with Mobile OS security?