Over 50% Android Users Don't Use Security Software: Kaspersky Lab

According to a survey conducted by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab in summer 2013, over 50% of Android-based smartphone and tablet owners do not use any security software to protect their devices against cyber-threats. Meanwhile, Android has long been the most popular platform for ordinary users and the cybercriminals who use malware to steal from them. Only 40% of smartphone and 42% of tablet owners that participated in the survey stated that they have installed a security solution on their devices and are now using it. Other respondents are content to rely on the limited security features integrated in the OS, or trust their own instincts to keep them safe.

Meanwhile, for cybercriminals Android is well-established as the top target among all mobile platforms. According to the Kaspersky Lab cloud service Kaspersky Security Network, which accumulates data about urgent cyber-threats, 99% of current malware samples targeting mobile devices have been developed for the Android platform. And this threat is growing: Kaspersky Lab specialists detected 35,000 malicious samples for the whole of 2012, while the figure for the first half of 2013 was over 47,000.

There are two main reasons why cybercriminals are interested in the Android platform: popularity and functionality. A malicious program can make a smartphone send text messages to premium-rate short numbers, thus stealing money from the user's account; it can turn the smartphone into a spying device, giving the fraudsters information about the device owner, including all calls, correspondence, passwords to social network and e-pay accounts, etc. In other words, all the communication, entertainment and computing capabilities of Android-based devices are just as popular with criminals as they are with regular users.

There's another serious risk which can have unpleasant consequences - the high probability of devices being lost or stolen. For many people smartphones and tablets have become the main place to store their favorite photos and videos, correspondence with friends and family, work-related documents and other valuable information which must not fall into the wrong hands.

Yet not even this rapid rise of threats can prevent Android from remaining a convenient and useful platform for many tasks. Therefore we advise users of Android-based devices to protect their smartphones and tablets with a high-quality Internet Security class solution.

Image credit: FreeDigitalPhotos.net