The ubiquity of mobile devices continues to attract attackers as malicious apps have surged 20% across third-party app stores, advertisers and tracking firms account for nine of 10 API calls for top mobile applications, and nation-state actors increasingly target mobile devices, according to a trio of reports released this week.
In one measure of the threat, the number of malicious apps blacklisted by RiskIQ increased 20% over the previous quarter and accounted for 2.1% of all apps tracked by RiskIQ - up from 1.95%, the company stated in its quarterly mobile threat report released on Oct. 24.
In a separate report, security-solutions provider Blackberry Cylance found that a collection of nation-state actors — including China, Iran, and North Korea — have honed their ability to develop and deploy Android and iOS malware over more than a decade. The strong security of mobile platforms has increased gray-market prices for "zero-click exploits" — attacks that can automatically infect devices — to jump to $1 million for Android and $2.5 million for iOS devices, but the platforms still are not immune to attack, says Brian Robison, chief security evangelist at BlackBerry Cylance.
"This preconceived notion that app-store apps are actually safe is a fallacy," he says. "The motivation behind the app stores have very little to do with security, and much more with protecting the app store's profit margins as well as protecting the ways developers make money."
Because so much user activity is conducted on mobile devices, they have naturally become a focus for third parties. While cybercriminals continue to strive to convince users to download and install malicious mobile apps, developer ..
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