McAfee has dropped a pretty large bomb on the mobile security industry today. According to the company’s third-quarter security report, Android is the primary target for new mobile malware, jumping 37 percent this quarter, which is on top of the 76 percent rise from last quarter.
The report has indicated that Android has become the exclusive target for all new mobile malware, making it the most attacked mobile operating system on the market currently.
Last quarter the Android mobile operating system (OS) became the most “popular” platform for new malware. This quarter Android became the exclusive platform for all new mobile malware. The Symbian OS (for Nokia handsets) remains the platform with the all-time greatest number of malware, but Android is clearly today’s target.
In other words:
Number of malware attacks found on iOS devices this quarter? Zero. Number of malware attacks found last quarter on iOS devices? Zero. Number of attacks found during the first quarter of 2011? Yeah, still zero.
Okay, so it was our words, but it was based on their numerical analysis. If you’re the type of person who would rather not think about getting exploited while you ride the bus and surf the net on your mobile device, you probably know what smartphone you should be using at this point.
There’s a lot of great things that an open platform can do, but one thing it can’t provide is the security of a ‘walled garden.’ If the price of admission to that walled garden means that I never, ever have to worry about malware on my mobile phone, I’ll pay the price gladly.
