According to Sophos, a popular anti-virus company, hackers have been looking beyond Windows in terms of viruses and other threats during the year of 2012. On Tuesday, the company released its 2013 Security Threat Report. While most of the 40-page document was pretty dull, there was one major find: 2012 was the year of Android and OS X malware.
Android has been the most sought after platform to hack this year. The most notable hack would have to be the Android.FakeInstaller. Once installed, the program automatically sends expensive text messages from your phone, which subscribe you to pay per text services. The only real way to avoid this hack on Android is to not download any seedy apps from Google Play or other sources. In some markets, like the United States and Australia, Android threats are already growing more rapidly than PC threats.
As far as OS X goes, threats like the Flashback virus are becoming more relevant as Macs continue to grow in the marketplace. In the week of August 1st to August 6th, 2012, Sophos found 4,900 different pieces of OS X malware floating around Mac computers. It’s worth noting that some pieces of OS X malware are cross-platform threats as the programs infect computers via Java.
