96% of mobile malware targets Android, report says

[[128326]]

According to foreign media WarketWatch, a report released by Internet security company FireEye shows that 96% of malware on the Internet is directed at the Android system, and more than 5 billion downloaded Android applications are at risk of being attacked by hackers.

The report shows that these malware are usually disguised as "benign" applications. In 2013, the number of malware targeting Android systems was 240,000, and in 2014 it increased to 390,000. FireEye said that one of the biggest threats to Android is that its mobile application communication information is transmitted back to the server. FireEye found that many of these messages are not encrypted, so they can be easily intercepted by hackers and inserted with malicious code to infect users.

For a long time, the large number of "rough" Android applications in Google Play, the Google app store, have been criticized. From the lack of security in application writing, which can lead to hacker hijacking, to stealing information or making harassing calls, sending toll-inducing text messages, etc., Android users face a series of security risks.

"You can take all the code and insert additional instructions to make it look identical to the original app, so that the average consumer can't tell the difference when they download it," said Jason Steele, director of technical strategy at FireEye.

However, it's not just Android that is vulnerable, iOS is not immune, even for non-jailbroken devices. The researchers said that the growing popularity of iOS devices makes them a "valuable" target in the eyes of hackers.