99.9% Of New Mobile Malware Targets Android Phones

Android, the world's most popular smartphone operating system, has malware issues. We knew that already. But a new report suggests these issues are only destined to worsen.

In fact, 99.9% of new mobile malware detected in the first quarter of 2013 is designed to hit Android phones, according to a new report released by online security firm Kaspersky Lab.

The vast majority of those are trojan viruses, a type of virus that, as Mashable reported, is used in many instances (to target Tibetan activists, for example.) SMS trojans, which steal money by sending unauthorized texts to premium rate numbers, are the most common, with 63% of total infections.

Kaspersky researchers reported a boom in all mobile malware, too. In the first three months of 2013 alone, the firm detected as many as half the total number of new malware detected in the entire year of 2012.

Outside of the mobile world, the report has some other interesting numbers. Using malicious links comprise 91% of total threats, making it by far the hackers' preferred method of infecting victims.

Such attacks, in their spear phishing email form, caused the recent seemingly endless series of Twitter hacks.

Wondering where all the malware lives? The top three host countries include the United States (25%), Russia (19%), and the Netherlands (14%).

For more information, you can read the full report here.

Source : mashable