Mobile Banking: Symantec's Whitepaper Details Top Seven An
Source: Rajani Baburajan
However, Symantec cautions that this ratio is likely to increase in the future as smartphones gain traction as payment devices. Smartphone usage is growing exponentially, with new mobile device shipments increasing 55 percent in 2010.
The whitepaper, “Motivations of Recent Android (News - Alert) Malware,” analyzes the current monetization schemes behind the growing wave of malware targeting the Android mobile computing platform, and schemes likely to be seen in the future.
“Mobile technology is advancing at a rapid pace and cybercriminals are keeping close tabs on these developments,” said Eric Chien, technical director, Symantec Security Technology and Response, in a statement. “The marked increase in mobile malware �C particularly that targeting the Android platform �Cis likely only the beginning in terms of both the quantity of threats and their sophistication.”
The white paper also details the top current mobile malware monetization schemes observed by Symantec, giving details of how each scheme works and examples of the malware presently being used to carry them out. Some of these schemes include premium rate number billing scams, spyware, search engine poisoning, pay-per-click scams, pay-per-install schemes, adware and mTAN stealing.
Symantec has identified potential revenue generating schemes likely to be seen in the near future that are capable of increasing cybercriminals’ return on investment. Some of them include stealing and subsequently selling sensitive financial information; selling stolen International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) numbers for use on previously blocked or counterfeit phones; and peddling fake mobile security products, a tactic that has been highly successful in the PC realm, according to an official statement from the company.
The three factors required for mobile malware to reach the levels of sophistication and breadth seen with threats targeting PCs include an open platform, a ubiquitous platform and sufficient attacker motivation
While Android platform has largely fulfilled the first two conditions, there has been the beginning of the third. The research suggests that attackers will no doubt continue to invest in the creation of Android malware as monetization schemes evolve.
Symantec, under the Norton Everywhere initiative, has announced several offerings that go beyond Internet security and give consumers the power to protect themselves and their families across multiple devices and platforms.
Norton Mobile Security Lite, available in the Android Market, combines select anti-theft features with powerful antimalware, giving users a sense of security in the event their phone is ever lost, stolen or compromised by malware.
The company also offers Norton Tablet Security designed specifically for Android tablets to protect devices, privacy and important data against loss, theft, viruses and other threats. Important features include Web-based antitheft functions like Report Lost, Lock, Locate and Sneak Peek, and antimalware and antiphishing protection.
Recently Symantec announced the availability of new enterprise backup appliance that offers flexible appliance deployment solutions to help organizations modernize their backup infrastructures and accelerate new initiatives around virtualization with greater reliability.
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