<p> With a majority of smartphone users adopting Android as their mobile platform, over 4 lakh Android malware were detected during the January-March period this year, security solutions firm Quick Heal said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"Total Android malware detected by Quick Heal was over 4 lakhs, Android adware consisted of almost 89 per cent detections," Quick Heal said in its 'quarterly threat report' for January-March, 2014.<br />It said 80 per cent of the smartphone users adopt Android as their mobile platform.<br />"The massive rise in Android phone, tablet users and the unregulated nature of Android application markets, has led to an exponential growth in the numbers of malware," the report said.<br />Quick Heal said Android adware finds its way into smartphones through the myriad free applications that users install. A large portion of these applications come from unauthorised third-party sources which are unregulated and unmonitored.<br />"Such adware proves to be extremely dangerous as it steals confidential data and often goes undetected by the users," the report said.<br />The security firm said upcoming trend for Android malware indicated, high social network usage that can lure many fake applications into extracting personal details and stealing money of users.<br />For Windows, the report said malicious software detections went up by approximately 20 per cent since December 2013.<br />"This quarter, over 10 million malware detected for windows, Adware accounted 25 per cent malware detection," the report said.<br />It said for Windows users, dominant security breach over the last quarter was 'Heartbleed', which found its way through the open SSL technology.<br />As a result, a large number of passwords were exposed and dangerously, about 50 per cent of these passwords are yet unchanged.<br />Quick Heal said the Upcoming trends for Windows malware indicates that in the absence of windows XP support, more blatant attacks will be seen. Cloud-based computing is another open ground for the attackers in the coming quarter.<br />"The prime objective of these cybercriminals is data theft, they manipulate this data in multiple ways for personnel gains," Quick Heal Technologies Founder and CFO Sanjay Katkar said. </p>
<p> With a majority of smartphone users adopting Android as their mobile platform, over 4 lakh Android malware were detected during the January-March period this year, security solutions firm Quick Heal said today.<br /><br /></p>.<p>"Total Android malware detected by Quick Heal was over 4 lakhs, Android adware consisted of almost 89 per cent detections," Quick Heal said in its 'quarterly threat report' for January-March, 2014.<br />It said 80 per cent of the smartphone users adopt Android as their mobile platform.<br />"The massive rise in Android phone, tablet users and the unregulated nature of Android application markets, has led to an exponential growth in the numbers of malware," the report said.<br />Quick Heal said Android adware finds its way into smartphones through the myriad free applications that users install. A large portion of these applications come from unauthorised third-party sources which are unregulated and unmonitored.<br />"Such adware proves to be extremely dangerous as it steals confidential data and often goes undetected by the users," the report said.<br />The security firm said upcoming trend for Android malware indicated, high social network usage that can lure many fake applications into extracting personal details and stealing money of users.<br />For Windows, the report said malicious software detections went up by approximately 20 per cent since December 2013.<br />"This quarter, over 10 million malware detected for windows, Adware accounted 25 per cent malware detection," the report said.<br />It said for Windows users, dominant security breach over the last quarter was 'Heartbleed', which found its way through the open SSL technology.<br />As a result, a large number of passwords were exposed and dangerously, about 50 per cent of these passwords are yet unchanged.<br />Quick Heal said the Upcoming trends for Windows malware indicates that in the absence of windows XP support, more blatant attacks will be seen. Cloud-based computing is another open ground for the attackers in the coming quarter.<br />"The prime objective of these cybercriminals is data theft, they manipulate this data in multiple ways for personnel gains," Quick Heal Technologies Founder and CFO Sanjay Katkar said. </p>