Android malware outside of app stores on the rise

F-secure’s latest Threat Report reveals an increase in “malverstising”.

According to the report, the first half of 2013 saw that malvertising – the advertisements that lead users to malicious products – is increasingly being used to distribute mobile malware, due in part to its wide reach.

358 new families and variants of Android malware were discovered by F-Secure in H1, nearly doubling the total number the firm has ever discovered to 793.

Symbian followed with 16 new families and variants. No new families or variants were discovered on other mobile platforms.

While still less sophisticated on a mobile than on a PC, F-Secure expects drive-by downloads to continue as an attack vector. Mobile drive-bys use a notification message asking if the user wants to install the app, making them more obvious than PC drive-bys, with the option to circumvent them.