All of us (well, hopefully all of us) are using a combination of security software on our computers, to include virus scanning, a firewall, and maybe a malware/spyware detection tool like Ad-Aware. But what about our smart phones? Is there malicious software running on your smart phone? Would you know about it if there were?
Chris Carboni isn’t sure you would know. Chris wrote a blog entry for the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center, where an online poll was taken in June that allowed readers to report their experiences with malware on mobile devices. As of July 12, Chris reported the following:
Only 15.3 percent of readers are scanning mobile devices for malware.
Of those who are, however, 18.1 percent are finding it.
But 84.6 percent are not even looking.
Now, the poll has a very small sample (statistically speaking), with only 540 responses by July 12th, but at first glance, the results indicate that the mobile platform is a target-rich environment.
However, he added, “I have been monitoring the statistics as responses are entered and the percentage of people reporting they found malware consistently ranged from 15-20 [percent] so 18.1 [percent] seems to be a reasonable number. Likewise the percentage of people who were not scanning ranged consistently from 82-86 [percent]. Based on those numbers, 83 of the 457 people who responded who were not looking for malware would be infected. Ouch.”
What’s worse is that as smart phone processing power increases, more activities are conducted through the phone instead of the desktop, to include online banking, email, and social networking. What took years to develop and fine-tune for the desktop computer is happening practically overnight with the mobile platforms.
More info:
Is your smart phone infected with malware?
Thoughts on Malware for Mobile Devices – Part 2
