Android devices face biggest cyber threat: analysts

Cybercriminals are sneaking a soaring variety of malware into smartphones to steal data or maybe money, with those running on Google's Android most exposed to security threats, analysts said.

While the Android open concept has gained the hearts of these who find the iPhone too closely managed by Apple, additionally it is growing the Google operating system's Achilles heel.

"Something really worrying in regards to the Google model, that is also the great thing about that model, is the openness of our surroundings," Cesare Garlati, consumer specialist at security firm Trend Micro said..

Anyone can create or install an application on an Android phone, Garlati identified, in place of the Apple controlled Appstore which imposes a layer of screening.

"Android's security model basically says, it's the responsibility of the tip user to evaluate if an application is secure.

"i believe that's asking an excessive amount of from the user. Who's ready to understand if a vendor is legitimate?" he asked.

Trend Micro surveyed independent analysts about safety features at the four main mobile operating systems - Apple's iOS, RIM's Blackberry, Microsoft's Windows and Google's Android - and located that Blackberry was ranked safest and Android the least.

BlackBerry benefitted from the indisputable fact that it was originally designed more as a platform than a tool, while iOS, ranked second safest, was tightly controlled by Apple.

Nevertheless, Garlati stressed that "no platform is immune from problems."

With over a thousand million people expected to possess a smartphone by 2013, cybercheats are increasingly setting their sights available to buy.

Several sessions at this year's Mobile World Congress therefore addressed security, with companies including McAfee, SAP, Kaspersky Lab all trotting out new security products for tablets or smartphones.

Technology company Juniper Networks compiled a "record selection of mobile malware attacks" in 2011, particularly on Android phones.

In 2010, just 11,138 mobile malware samples were recorded, but they soared 155 per cent to twenty-eight,472 in 2011, the corporate said.

Slightly below half - 46.7 per cent - occurred on Android phones, said Juniper, whose study didn't look at Apple breaches.

"The aggregate of Google Android's dominant market share and the dearth of control over the applications appearing within the various Android application stores created an ideal storm, giving malware developers the means and incentives to spotlight the platform," the gang said.

Eugene Kaspersky, chief executive of the eponymous computer security firm, said: "We're pretty sure that this will likely follow the computer's evolution," mentioning that threats had surged from 90,000 in 2004 to a few 16 million in 2011, with internet transactions largely fuelling the upward thrust.

Some criminals are hiding "malicious code in legitimate applications" that buyers are downloading unwittingly.

When they have gained access to data at the phone, they're stealing information which may be utilized in identity theft or in illegal transactions.

an additional incentive for cybercriminals to breach smartphone security is that unlike computers, each phone "has an immediate link to money" throughout the SIM card, Denis Maslennikov, Kaspersky Lab's senior malware analyst said.

Criminals are able, for example, to implant so-called trojan horses that prompt phones to send SMSes to premium numbers.

"In 2012, the full malware industry becomes a fact we will be able to need to manage," he warned.

- AFP