Phil Schiller Warns of Android Malware: 'Be Safe Out There' [Chart]

Apple SVP Phil Schiller tweeted a report today from F-Secure that warns of a sharp rise in malware for Android.

Be safe out there: http://www.f-secure.com/static/doc/labs ... 202012.pdf …

Taking a look at the report we can see that Android is account for 96 of 100 threats reported in the last quarter.


Android malware has been strengthening its position in the mobile threat scene. Every quarter, malware authors bring forth new threat families and variants to lure more victims and to update on the existing ones. In the fourth quarter alone, 96 new families and variants of Android threats were discovered, which almost doubles the number recorded in the previous quarter. A large portion of this number was contributed by PremiumSMS—a family of malware that generates profit through shady SMS-sending practices—which unleashed 21 new variants.

Examining other mobile operating systems, F-Secure found that the number of threats being reported is negligible.

As for the other platforms, i.e., Blackberry, iOS, Windows Mobile, they may see some
threats popping up once in a while. But most likely, the threats are intended for
multiple platforms similar to the case of FinSpy.

Check out the chart below...