Help Net Security – (International) Android malware is booming. Trend Micro's January prediction that 11,000 pieces of Android malware will be detected by June of 2012 proved completely inaccurate, as the number of malicious applications in the wild for Google's mobile operating system exploded and now is at more than 25,000. Forty-eight percent of these malicious apps are premium service abusers, followed by 22 percent that are adware, and 21 percent that are data stealers. Malicious downloaders are offered in 19 percent of cases, while rooters, click fraudsters, and spying tools are at the bottom of the ladder. The apps are pushed onto users through third-party online stores and even the official Google Play app store. Usually, they masquerade as legitimate and popular software such as Angry Birds, Skype, and - 14 - Instagram. This unexpected boom in Android malware made the researchers revise their expectations — they believe there may be a total of 129,000 different malicious apps by the end of 2012.
Source: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2192&utm
