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Mobile Malware Evolution Threatens Smartphone Users In Egypt Says Kaspersky Lab Report
Published Mar 11, 2010
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As the dust from Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress 2010 has settled mobile malware is here to stay and cost millions of dollars to unsuspected GSM users around the world according to a latest report from Kaspersky Lab, a leading international developer of secure content management solutions.
The debut, last year, of malware designed to contact remote servers has opened new profiteering horizons for ruthless cybercriminals including SMS Trojans.
“These Trojans send SMS messages to premium pay numbers to get message parameters from the remote server. If a particular prefix is blocked, the cybercriminals do not have to use a different malicious program, but simply change the prefix on the server,” explains Alexander Gostev, Head of Global Research and Analysis Team of Kaspersky Lab and a specialist in mobile malware.
“Such programs appeared due to the popularity of WiFi networks and the advent of cheap mobile Internet services; both these factors make it possible for mobile phone and smartphone owners to use the Internet more frequently than previously,” he wrote in his report Malware Evolution 2009.
According to Gostev, attacks can also be perpetrated through malware already installed on mobile devices which can be updated from the remote server. Also mobile malware which is able to connect to a remote server could be the first step towards the creation of botnets made up of infected mobile devices.
Mobile malware attacks are less likely to concentrate on a single operating system, as is the case with Windows in computers since the struggle for market share in the arena of mobile operating systems continues, deterring virus writers from concentrating their efforts on a single operating system. However, 2009 was a year during which mobile malware came of age with the first iPhone malware in the form of the Ike worm, the creation of the first spyware targeting Android and the identification of the first signed malware for Symbian smartphones.
According to Gostev in 2009, 39 new mobile malware families and 257 new mobile malware variants were identified. This is in comparison to the 30 new families and 143 new modifications identified in 2008, an indication that this year is likely to see a proliferation of mobile attacks.
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VMD - [Virtual Marketing Department]
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