Mobile Malware Threats See Steep Rise

McAfee reported a sharp increase in mobile malware threats in the fourth quarter of 2010 – 46 percent higher than in 2009.

Among all mobile operating platforms, Nokia’s Symbian was reportedly the most targeted, according to McAfee’s Fourth Quarter 2010 Threats Report.

However, malware developers are expected to shift their attention to Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, as the latter has surpassed Symbian’s popularity for the first time.

“Cybercriminals are keeping tabs on what’s popular, and what will have the biggest impact from the smallest effort,” said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs, implying the correlation between device popularity and cybercriminal activity will influence the proliferation of malware threats this year.

More mobile phones, more malware

Around 55,000 new malware threats are launched everyday, with Adobe’s Flash and PDF software being the primary targets of cybercriminals, said the security firm, citing Adobe’s surging popularity among mobile devices.

Meanwhile, the report also associated the 46 percent growth of web threats with the rapid growth of smartphones and tablets, particularly those powered by non-Microsoft OSes and supporting Adobe technologies.

According to McAfee, Internet-enabled devices have become increasingly prone to malware attacks because they are being used for more online transactions. However, they promise less security when compared to desktop PCs.

Spam levels hit the lowest

Some of the most active threats in 2010’s fourth quarter included Zeus, Conficker and Koobface.

“Phishing URLs in the form of the IRS, gift cards, rewards accounts, and social networking accounts were also among the most popular,” according to the report.

The security firm discovered that within the top 100 results of the top daily search terms, 51 percent led to malicious sites.

However, McAfee has detected the lowest spam levels in years.

This phenomenon is reportedly attributed to a transition period, “with several botnets going dormant during a time of year when spam volumes are usually on an upward path”.