Android is 'mobile world's equivalent' of Windows for hackers

The difference between Windows and Android malware is that the latter is evolving much quicker, says Kaspersky Lab researcher

The capabilities of malware targeting the market-leading Android platform are mimicking those of Trojans that have wrung profits from Windows PC users for years, a new study shows.

With nearly an 80 percent market share, Android's mobile dominance parallels Windows in the PC world, making Google's operating system the "mobile world's equivalent," Kaspersky Lab said in its latest Threat Evolution report

The difference between Windows and Android malware is that the latter is evolving much quicker, as criminals borrow from what they learned in targeting PCs since the 1990s.

"The evolution of Android malware has gone much more quickly than the evolution of Windows malware," Roel Schouwenberg, a senior researcher for Kaspersky Lab, told CSOonline.

The peak in Android malware development so far was Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a, which Kaspersky labeled in June as the most sophisticated mobile Trojan to date. Capabilities included opening a backdoor for downloading files, stealing information about the phone and its apps, sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers and spreading malware via Bluetooth.

Obad also reached new heights in its use of encryption and code obfuscation to thwart analysis efforts. In addition, it exploited three previously unknown Android vulnerabilities.