Security firm F-Secure is out with a new report that may be alarming to avid mobile and online casino gamers.
Rather than attacking known Android vulnerabilities, the report authors reveal that most malware authors “seem more inclined to simply find ways to trick the user into giving them access to the device rather than having to find and design complicated exploitation methods based on vulnerabilities.”
Most of the mobile threats seen in 2013, Networkworld summarizes, were financially motivated.
The most common types are Trojans that rely on malicious additions injected into the packages of clean, legitimate programs, especially popular gaming and casino apps, which are then distributed in various apps stores.
According to F-Secure, these particular malicious apps usually have “a new name reminiscent of the clean app.”
“These malicious apps,” the report summary reads, “typically tied into botnets, essentially represent a new twist on social engineering” since they take advantage of the user’s overriding desire to install and use a popular app to gain the permissions needed to execute their malicious behavior.
All told, Android accounted for 97% of all mobile malware last year, yet only 0.1% of those were on Google Play.
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