Android Users, Beware: 2013 Dubbed ‘Year of Mobile Malware’
Shelly Palmer
The old phrase often credited to the late P.T. Barnum, “there’s a sucker born every minute,” can definitely be used to describe some aspects of the mobile industry. As smartphone and tablet adoption continues to increase, hackers and scammers are finding new ways to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers. Things aren’t expect to slow down, security firm BitDefender predicts malware will become so prevalent in 2013 that it has dubbed it “the year of mobile malware.” The firm notes that the number of Android devices infected with malware increased by 41% in the second half of 2012 with individual malware reports increased 75%. In fact, 94.35% of unique malware samples in 2012 were found to be Android trojans. BitDefender chief security strategist Catalin Cosoi believes that these numbers will increase in the coming year.
