Malware (viruses) on Mobile Phones

Ok, the data in this picture is a little dated, it was from August 2011, it serves to prove a point.

Where is the iPhone iOS .... yep, you can't see it.

Currently, it is widely reported that an android device can be hit with between 12,000 to 28,000 different malware vulnerabilities.

There are many fans of Android, in principle I am one as well, except, whilst i like the founding principles upon which the operating system is based. I am all too aware of the opportunist nature of malware creators.

The real issue is that there is far too many 'android stores' out there that do not check the software, therefore the quality assurance processes are non existent.

Now, Apple, their desire for a percentage and a walled garden does work. If you are really clever (and you must work hard here) you can dupe them into accepting apps with dodgy code, but this takes considerable effort and guile.

Such is the effort, it has only been noted on a couple of occasions when cyber defence evangelists have succeeded. So, unless you are foolish enough to jailbreak your iPhone, then you should be ok.

At this point if you are an iPhone owner, I would suggest that you avoid the sense of smugness. There are a couple of malware offences out this year that use a vulnerability in PDF documents (and their use of links) to allow a remote service to jailbreak your phone, and therefore unleash the hordes upon thee.

So far, it has been effort ratio, with Android having a very low one. But as they chip away and if Apple becomes complacent, you can never, never be too smug nor too confident.

Lets just say, I have simply scratched the surface, there is much more to this. It was an incredibly enjoyable seminar I was speaking at today [but not on this].




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