98% of mobile-device malware attacking Android (DROID) phones

Worldwide, a significant portion of the population owns and uses a smartphone;  mobile users search Google over 5.9 Billion times daily while over 6 Billion hours of YouTube are watched each month on mobile devices.  (Statistics taken from a presentation by Intel Corporation at the MOBILE World Congress 2014.)

Since most smartphones are based on Google’s Android operating system, these are the primary targets of malicious attacks.  Kaspersky Labs, a prominent anti-virus software manufacturer, reports that 98% of malware targeted at mobile devices attacks Google’s Android (DROID), which confirms “both the popularity of this mobile OS and the vulnerability of its architecture”.

Suggestions for DROID (and other smartphone) owners to suppress malware:

  • Keep your mobile phone updated with the latest patches
  • Deploy an anti-malware application

Visit http://blogs.computerworld.com/mobile-security/23577/98-mobile-malware-targets-android-platform for the entire article by Darlene Storm at ComputerWorld.