Oh my, things just keep on getting worse and worse if you're an Android user who's concerned about security. It's the one thing that fans of more closed systems such as iOS and the App Store will always throw at those who favor open - security can never be as tight.
According to a new security report, malicious apps on Android have doubled in the past six months. Details after the jump!
According to a report published yesterday, Android is, unsurprisingly, deemed as the worst among all mobile OSes when it comes to security because of its susceptibility to malware.
Claiming to be all nice and open is one thing, and letting anyone write an app for your platform and then make it available through said platform's official marketplace is another. One thing they both potentially have in common though is the potential for security issues, and Android is beginning to see such issues crop up with alarming regularity.
While other mobile operating systems like iOS, Windows Phone 7 and Symbian are generally free from viruses, Google’s mobile OS Android isn’t so lucky. Today, a new kind of malware for Android has been discovered which records phone calls and can then upload those calls to an online server.
Two new forms of Android malware are now in the wild. The first one is a new variant of DroidDream Light, which has been spotted on the Android Market by Android anti-malware maker Lookout. The second one, a lot more serious, is known as Zitmo, has the ability to intercept banking data from unsuspecting users. These two threats have caused many to question Google's policy on allowing all apps to make it to the platform without any previous approval.
If you're an Android user, you better stay on the lookout for a new form of Android malware: DroidKungFu. Discovered by Assistant Professor Xuxian Jiang and Ph. D. student Yajin Zhou, both from North Carolina State University, this reflects yet another evidence that hackers are interested in this open but also largely unprotected platform.
A new version of MacDefender has been found, hours after a Mac OS X security update that would supposedly fix the problem was issued. Let the cat and mouse fight begin!
MacDefender is a Mac OS X malware threat that's spread considerably over the last few weeks, and has now been patched with a security update.
Last week, the Mac community was dead scared when the first widespread Mac OS X malware threat, Mac Defender, sometimes also under other names such as Mac Protector or Mac Security, made its way onto the internet. The malware is distributed through ill-designed webpages that claim that the user's Mac has been infected.
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