India ranks second in the list of countries severely affected by malware, according to Cheetah Mobile’s 2015 Security Report. China tops the list, while Indonesia ranks third. The security report gives a detailed overview of how Android smartphone users are being affected by virus, malwares and Trojan.While these countries have a huge Android users base, one of the main reasons behind these countries are becoming prime target is weak monitoring of third party apps, and that these apps are mostly contaminated by malware. According to the report, the number of Android viruses went past 9.5 million in 2015, which is larger than twice the total number of the past three years. Root Trojans, which take full control of the device and are very tough to remove, also grew in 2015. The report further points the apps and user behavior being targeted by malware and viruses. More than 60 percent of viruses are related to mobile payment. These viruses have been luring customers to enter their banking credentials including bank account and ID information in guise of normal payment pages. The growth of viruses is closely related to popularity of mobile payments and phone banking. More than 50 percent of Android users have been affected by malicious promotion malware. These malware are disguised as pop ads and force installation of unwanted apps, which are very hard to uninstall. Privacy theft Trojan is also becoming a common issue for Android users. These hide in the devices to get access to text messages, contact information and even personal photos. In 2015, over 800,000 Android users were affected by malicious promotion malwares, while mobile payment viruses caused information losses to more than 300,000 users. The security report also highlights growth of phishing websites. In 2015, Cheetah Mobile detected over 1.3 million malicious websites. The report points out the growth of such peaked in December mainly because of online shopping sales, and cyber criminals trying to target users willing to spend money online. According to the report, these malicious sites thrive on social networks, search engine and SMS. Social networking websites have emerged as favorite tool for cyber criminals to spread phishing sites. Cyber criminals usually embed phishing sites into breaking news to lure users to click. SMS and email with phishing sites are also common tricks of scammers. Mobile security trends for 2016 The report hopes situation to improve in 2016 with Google adding more security features in Android 5.0+ and 6.0. It points out two important security features – Security Enhanced Linux and full device encryption, which makes these versions more secure than the previous iterations of Android. “Currently Android 5.0+ have covered over 30 percent of Android users, and the kernels of flagship models of major Android vendors have been upgraded to Android 5.0+ or Android 6.0. With more and more Android devices being upgraded to Android 5.0+ or 6.0, we can expect a more secure Android ecosystem,” the report states. Google is likely to crack down on third-party app stores and restrict the permissions available to apps through the Google Play submission. With the Play store becoming available in China in the near future, Google is expected to bring a more transparent, standardized and healthy application distribution channel. The report warns users of being more alert while using mobile payments as cyber criminals are most likely to target them to steal their key banking data.
New research by Cheetah Mobile Security reveals that China had 1.5 million infected devices last year, followed by India with close to a million and Indonesia with over 800,000. Apart from the fact that these countries are home to the largest smartphone user bases, another reason they are worst-hit is that third-party markets are prevailing in these areas, many of which have been contaminated by malware due to weak monitoring, coupled with an increased use in online mobile payment methods worldwide. The study also revealed the number of Android viruses rose sharply, exceeding 9.5m, up 22% YoY.