If you’re willing to believe it, Symantec says that one out of every six Android apps you’ve downloaded may actually be malware. What’s more, 36 percent of all applications available for Google’s mobile OS are ‘Graywares’. These do not harm your smartphone in any way, but are equally bad since they spy on user behavior or engage in similar tracking activities.
So while you’re happily downloading one Android app after the other, you might want to consider that about 17 percent of them are malware, while 2.3 million mine user information. Symantec claims to have reached these conclusions after studying 6.3 million applications for the Google platform. India features in the list of top 10 infected countries on the globe.
The cyber security firm also reveals that 1 million malware infections are built per day across the world. From 2013 to 2014 alone, we saw a 26 percent increase in the number, with 317 million of harmful programs having been created last year. Cyber criminals are increasingly aiming at small- to mid-size businesses since more and more such organizations are developing intellectual property.
Start-up companies have been making it to the news quite often. Last year, Facebook acquired its first ever Indian firm in the form of Little Eye Labs, while Google bought Impermium. These success stories unfortunately attract all kinds of unwelcome attention too. The race to deliver the next breakthrough app means smaller businesses face a higher risk of becoming victims of cyber attackers.
Also see: India said to be the top source of DDoS attack traffic in 2014 by Symantec
60 percent of targeted attacks affected such establishments in 2014. Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Kochi were the cities which suffered the most at the hands of online criminals. Apart from watching out for what Android apps they download, people should also be wary of social media scams, says the Symantec report.