There were 2.3 million malware attacks on Android in 2015

According to German cybersecurity company G DATA, in 2015, 2.3 million pieces of malware were discovered attacking the Android operating system.

According to Softpedia, G DATA said that every 11 seconds a new malware appears on the Android platform. According to the company's statistics, there were 2,333,777 malware targeting Android last year, an increase of 50% compared to 2014 (1,548,129 malware samples were discovered). The number of malware discovered in 2015 is the highest record of the Android platform since its introduction.

Number of malware detected in the fourth quarter of 2015 (image above) and in the years 2011-2015.

Android malware also increased sharply in Q4 2015 with 758,133 new samples discovered (up 32% from the previous quarter). In addition, the company also discovered that hackers used an average of 2.5 applications to spread malware (both new and old).

The reason for the sharp increase in malware on the Android platform over the past year is because this ecosystem is developing quite strongly. More and more people are using smartphones and tablets for financial and banking transactions. Meanwhile, most of the hackers' purpose when spreading malware is financial gain, so it is understandable that malware has increased targeting Android over the past year.

Over the past several months, researchers from various security companies have discovered highly sophisticated Android malware that is primarily aimed at stealing financial information.

Some of the most dangerous Android malware include Acecard, Xbot, Mazar BOT, and the Asacub family. Most of these include trojans, information stealers, and even ransomware.

G DATA researchers also believe that one of the reasons for the increase in malware is the Internet of Things (IoT). Many IoT devices store sensitive information and are sometimes managed by applications. Hackers will target vulnerabilities in applications on IoT devices to exploit user information. Firmware updates also do not eliminate this malware.

According to VnReview