Trend Micro: 1 in 10 Android apps are malware

[nsane.forums]

Trend Micro has released a report that states 69,000 out of 700,000 apps on the Google Play Store are in some way malicious, while an even larger total of the generally available apps are dodgy.

Trend Micro has been very vocal about the state of Android malware in the past, claiming that there will be 1 million cases of Android malware in 2013, and now the security company is beginning to back these predictions up with facts. Out of 2 million applications scanned using the Mobile App Reputation Service, including the full catalog of apps available on the Play Store, they believe 1 in 10 apps are malware.

From over 2 million applications analyzed, Trend Micro found 293,091 of them to be outright malicious, while a further 150,203 were deemed to be "high risk", contributing to a grand total of 443,294 dodgy applications for the platform. Of the 293,091 malicious apps, 68,740 of them were sourced directly from the Google Play Store; as the Store currently has around 700,000 apps, that roughly equates to 1 in every 10 apps being malicious.

Aside from just malicious code, Trend Micro found 22% of apps inappropriately leaked user data, sending things such as IMEI numbers, ICCID numbers, contact data, telephone numbers and even microphone data over some sort of network. The security company also found a good 32% of apps were "Poor" in terms of battery usage, while 24% were poor in network usage, and 28% were poor in memory usage.

Trend Micro hopes that by releasing data such as this, people and companies will start to believe that the threat of malware on mobile devices is actually real. They close their blog post on the matter by saying "it would be heartening to see more app stores taking the safety of their customers so seriously", in reference to BlackBerry integrating Trend Micro technologies into their BlackBerry World.

View: Original Article

[ASIO]

Hmmm .. never root your android device :D

[DKT27]

Trend Micro: 1 in 10 Android apps are malware

Including Trend Micro's own apps. :tehe:

[Mr Orus]

:P Enjoy..

[calguyhunk]

Trend Micro: 1 in 10 Android apps are malware

Including Trend Micro's own apps. :tehe:

LOL! :lol:

But on a more serious note, that will always happen on an open platform. Anybody can peddle anything. The consumer will have to be aware about what to buy into. Just like the real world. It ain't a walled garden the last time I checked unlike what those geniuses at Apple may seem to think ;)

[DKT27]

But on a more serious note, that will always happen on an open platform. Anybody can peddle anything. The consumer will have to be aware about what to buy into. Just like the real world. It ain't a walled garden the last time I checked unlike what those geniuses at Apple may seem to think ;)

Problem is, their definition and specification of "malware" is shitty and lacks proper research - rooter and it's definition for example.

[Tweety.Abd]

Well they have to say something to sell their app.

[ffi]

any app that gathers user data without notification, or pushes adverts through notifications, being marked as adware.

There are no apps that gather user data without notification, it's impossible or there is some serious leak in Android which hasn't been fixed, when installing you have to give permission and so you are notified.

[Arachnoid]

1 in 10 are malware........Im sure that could be said about windows apps in general too :rolleyes: :lol: