A new report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is drawing attention to Android’s lingering mobile security concerns.
According to the report’s findings, Google’s platform still accounts for the vast majority of mobile malware.
“Android is the world’s most widely used mobile operating system (OS) and continues to be a primary target for malware attacks due to its market share and open source architecture,” the report reads.
Industry reporting indicates 44 percent of Android users are still using versions 2.3.3 through 2.3.7-known as Gingerbread-which were released in 2011 and have a number of security vulnerabilities that were fixed in later versions. The growing use of mobile devices by federal, state, and local authorities makes it more important than ever to keep mobile OS patched and up-to-date.
While Android accounts for the bulk of mobile malware, the second largest platform for malicious software is Nokia’s retired Symbian platform, which reportedly contains 19% of all malware threats.
The iOS platform remains a distant third with just 0.7% of malware threats.
To review the report in full and get up to speed on what you can do to reduce your exposure risk, click here.
