Ransomware scare all around Android Market - Warns McAfee

The scare of ransomware had been discussed earlier, but we found McAfee mentioning this recently via TOI. The latest update from McAfee shows that the count of ransomware active on android is increasing at a rapid pace.

Taking advantage of anonymous payment services, cyber criminals are increasingly using a malicious software 'ransomware' that holds a computer hostage until the victim pays to free it, online security firm McAfee says.

"Ransomware has become an increasing problem during the last several quarters and the situation continues to worsen. The number of new, unique samples this quarter is greater than 312,000, slightly less than last quarter but still the second highest figure recorded by the firm," the McAfee Labs Threats Report Third Quarter 2013, said.

The scary part is that the client may send out the money and the abusers may not even remove the malware leaving the user phone frozen.

"This method of cash collection is superior to that used by fake AV products, for example, which must process credit card orders for the fake software. Another reason is that an underground ecosystem is already in place to help with services such as pay-per-install on computers that are infected by other malware, such as Citadel, and easy-to-use crime packs are available in the underground market," McAfee said.

The US-based cyber security major also reported about 700,000 new Android malware samples, up by 30 per cent, during the third quarter signifying an increase in the number of attacks on the mobile operating system.

Malware, also known as malicious software, threats are increasing on mobile phones, especially Android.

"Despite responsible new security measures by Google, McAfee Labs believes the largest mobile platform will continue to draw the most attention from hackers given it possesses the largest base of potential victims," it said.

Source: TOI
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- Unknown Updated at: Wednesday, November 27, 2013