According to the results of the global survey "Mobile cyber-threats"Carried out by Kaspersky Lab and INTERPOL, one in five Android devices were attacked by malware at least once, during the period August 2013 – July 2014. The most common method of attack was the use of SMS Trojans, which are malicious programs that send text messages to high-cost numbers without the device owner's knowledge. It is noted that the research was based on data obtained from devices with Kaspersky Lab solutions installed.
Overall, 1.000.000 Android device users encountered malware from August 2013 until July 2014. This size corresponds approximately to 1 / 5 of all users of devices that have Kaspersky Lab products. Indeed, during this period, most of the digital attacks that have occurred in recent years have been recorded.
Attacks on Android devices were mainly targeted against users from Russia, India, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, Ukraine and Germany. This is mainly due to the fact that users in these countries often pay for content and online SMS services. For digital criminals, this is an attractive way to earn money through malicious attacks, as they can use these services to quickly and anonymously transfer prepaid mobile device accounts to third-party bank accounts.
In Eastern Europe, Kaspersky Lab recorded most of the mobile malware attacks in Ukraine (44% of all attacks in the region), Poland (23%), Turkey (11%) and Romania (8%). The top five is complemented by Greece with 7%.
The main reason for the increase in the number of attacks and users who have been attacked was the use of Trojan-SMS programs. These attacks corresponded to 57,08% of the total attacks detected by Kaspersky Lab's security solutions for Android devices. In the second place were RiskTool (21,52%). These are legitimate, conditional, programs that can, however, be used for malicious purposes (sending notifications for paid messages, transmitting geographic data, etc.). "Pop-ups", status bar notifications, etc. were in the third place with 7,37%.
And in Eastern Europe, the situation is similar. Trojan-SMS programs were the most widespread in 52% of attacks, followed by RiskTool with 32% and AdWare with 6%.
«Συχνά ακούμε ειδικούς να λένε ότι οι χρήστες Android δεν χρειάζεται να ανησυχούν, γιατί ο αριθμός των επιθέσεων δεν είναι σημαντικός, παρότι κακόβουλα προγράμματα για το συγκεκριμένο functional εμφανίζονται ανά τακτά διαστήματα. Μέχρι πρόσφατα, αυτό το σχόλιο θα μπορούσε να θεωρηθεί λογικό. Ωστόσο, η κατάσταση έχει αλλάξει δραματικά τον τελευταίο χρόνο – κι όχι προς το καλύτερο», said Roman Unuchek, senior virus analyst at Kaspersky Lab.
However, things were not entirely bleak throughout the investigation. In particular, in April 2014, Kaspersky Lab experts noticed a serious decrease in the total number of attacks, which was mainly due to a significant drop in the number of Trojan-SMS attacks. This may have been a result of the new rules introduced by Russia's telecoms regulator, which relate to services paid for via SMS. Based on these new rules, all telecom operators in Russia will now have to receive a confirmation message from every subscriber trying to pay for services via SMS. From July 2014, the number of attacks started to increase again. It is therefore possible that the new legislation contributed to the decline seen in April, indirectly confirming the effectiveness that legislation can have against digital fraud.
"The INTERPOL and Kaspersky Lab report highlights the major threats and trends of 2013 and 2014. This report underscores once again that digital crime is not just a new form of crime. What we observe here is that the model and structure of traditional organized crime has been embedded in a technologically advanced form, said Dr. Madan Oberoi, Director of Cyber Innovation & Outreach of INTERPOL
More information on the survey “Mobile cyber-threats” Lab are available on the website Securelist.com.
