Mobile threats

In 2013 security issues around mobiles have reached new heights and attained a new level of maturity in terms of both quality and quantity.

Once again, it’s time for us to deliver our customary retrospective of the key events that have defined the threat landscape in 2013.

According to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab products detected and neutralized a total of 978 628 817 threats in the third quarter of 2013

Since we published our first blog post about the mobile Trojan Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.Svpeng, the cybercriminals have improved its functionalities. Now Svpeng is capable of phishing as well, trying to harvest the financial data of users.

Last week, Google has released the 4.4 (KitKat) version of their omni-popular Android OS. So, how much more secure is Android 4.4?

This is one of those scenarios where the user looks for protection but only finds problems.  Sergio de los Santos, a friend of mine, has shared with me a link to a false App that pretends to be AdBlock Plus, the well-known and useful application that many users have in their web browsers. At the time

We’ve discovered Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a is the first malware being distributed using botnets that were created using completely different mobile malware.

According to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab products detected and neutralized a total of 983 051 408 threats in the second quarter of 2013.

Android OS offers an interesting service known as Google Cloud Messaging, or GCM. This service allows small (up to 4 KB) messages to be sent via the Google server from their mobile devices in JSON format. These messages may contain any structured data, such as links, advertising information, or commands.

Last weeks have been quite busy with announcements of either master keys or Chinese master keysbeing unveiled, both qualifying as critical vulnerabilities for the Android platform. Although things have finally calmed a bit, we are still waiting for the final act in Las Vegas at Black Hat USA, where Jeff Forristal (the researcher who discovered one of the

Recently, an Android application came to us for analysis. At a glance, we knew this one was special. All strings in the DEX file were encrypted, and the code was obfuscated.

According to KSN data, Kaspersky Lab products detected and neutralized 1 345 570 352 threats in Q1 2013.

In the past, we’ve seen targeted attacks against Tibetan and Uyghur activists on Windows and Mac OS X platforms. We’ve documented several interesting attacks which used ZIP files as well as DOC, XLS and PDF documents rigged with exploits.
Several days ago, the e-mail account of a high-profile Tibetan activist was hacked and used to send targeted attacks to other activists and human rights advocates. Perhaps the most interesting part is that the attack e-mails had an APK attachment – a malicious program for Android.

In mid-February 2013 a Kaspersky user from Malaysia asked us to check a Google Play application called My HRMIS & JPA Demo developed by Nur Nazri.

The fifth part of our regular overview of mobile malware evolution was published one year ago, and now it’s time to review the events of 2012 to see just how accurate our forecasts were