Controversy Generated by F-Secure Report about Dominance of Android OS Malware

There’s interest and controversy surrounding a new report from F-Secure, claiming that the Android OS accounted for 79 percent of mobile malware last year.

Especially alarming was that in Q4, Android represented 96 percent of malware attacks. “A large portion of this number (in Q4) was contributed by PremiumSMS — a family of malware that generates profit through shady SMS-sending practices — which unleashed 21 new variants,” F-Secure claimed in its report.

That compares to Google’s Android having 66.7 percent of all mobile malware in 2011 and 11.25 percent in 2010.

“Is it because Android is the most popular smartphone platform in the world right now, or is it because it’s just fundamentally easier to attack?” asked a report from TechCrunch.  

Another issue raised last year by MobilityTechzone’s Rich Steeves is that Android malware is easy to build.

For contrast, Apple’s iOS had only 0.7 percent of malware, F-Secure claims in the study. Symbian had 19 percent of all malware. Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and J2ME each saw less than 1 percent.

In addition to SMS-sending malware, some malware is included in banking trojans. Citmo.A, described as a “mobile version of the Carberp Trojan,” debuted in Q4. Eurograbber, a variety of the Zeus Trojan, reportedly stole $47 million from over 30,000 retail and corporate accounts in Europe.

In looking at the situation, F-Secure concludes that the increase in Android malware “can be largely attributed to the operating system’s increasing foothold in the mobile market. Android’s market share has risen to 68.8 percent in 2012, compared to 49.2 percent in 2011.”

The F-Secure report, however, led to some strong comments appearing on TechCrunch, especially on its definition of malware.

For instance, TylerStyle said, “There are so many problems with the source for this article, I'm agog that anyone could take it seriously.”

Similarly, JonneComlatelee, said, “I went thru the entire PDF report from F-Secure and did not find any sample size data. Margin of error? Population distribution? Where is the science and math in this report? This would not pass muster in any university or even high school statistics class. An infomercial masquerading as a valid scientific study?” 

And KarenKazaryan argues that, “The only thing that matters is that how many of this ‘malware’ is available on Google Play. Everything else is pure scaremongering to prop mobile antivirus products.”