Security Experts Predict to Increase of Cyberattacks on Android Apps In 2016

Hacker attacks on Android applications will continue to increase during 2016, according to a recent apps security report by Quick Heal Technologies (QHT). In Q3 2015, experts detected 1.2 million of new types of malicious software for Android. Over 3 months hackers developed 220 new malware families and modified 147 types of existing mobile security threats. As of end of 2015, experts found over 600 unique types of malware targeting the world's most popular mobile platform - Android.

According to QHT CTO Sanjay Katkar, the number of cyberattacks on Android applications keeps growing for several consecutive quarters, so users and organizations will have to pay more attention to Android security going forward.

One of the key reasons Android is so vulnerable to hacker attacks is the high fragmentation of the platform. Many users still keep using the old version of Android which partially explains such a high level of mobile software vulnerability. Hackers are taking advantage of this by utilizing security flaws that remained unfixed in the old version.

Katkar believes that 2016 will see a boom of malicious adware targeting Android. QHT claims that 66% of all Android malware comes from adware. This tendency is expected to keep in the future.

Currently, Google Play contains a way too many unsafe applications. The app store security flaws allow hackers to bypass protection mechanisms and upload malicious apps straight to the Android marketplace. Most of malware apps imitate legitimate apps such as official banking apps. Therefore, companies should be on the permanent watch-out for cyberattacks and phishing software, as hackers continue developing more and more sophisticated malware.

Check out our previous post about how to build highly secure Android apps!

Source: QHT, 2015

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