Mobile malware grows nearly three-fold in Q2 2015

So you’ve got your PC locked down so tight you even battle to get in sometimes, but how much care are you taking when it comes to mobile security? If your answer to that question is something along the lines of “not much”, you might want to step it up a notch.

According to security provider Kaspersky, some 291 800 new mobile malware programmes emerged in Q2, which is 2.8 times greater than in Q1. There were 1-million mobile malware installation packages in Q2, which is seven times greater than in Q1.

Read more: 3 simple steps to getting smart on mobile security

The company notes that mobile banking remains a main target for mobile threats. A new version of a previously existing Trojan for instance is capable of attacking 114 (four times more) banking and financial applications as its previous iteration. Its main goal is to steal the user’s login credentials with which to attack, among others, several popular email applications.

Financial threats still huge on the web

Banking remains the biggest target for malware on the web too. But according to Kaspersky, they are falling. There were 5 900 000 notifications about attempted malware infections to steal money via online access to bank accounts — this is 800 000 lower than in Q1.

In Q2 2015, Singapore became the leader in the number of Kaspersky Lab users who came under web-borne attacks by banking Trojans — 5.3% of all Kaspersky Lab users in Singapore faced this threat over this time period. Next came Switzerland with 4.2%, Brazil (4%), Australia (4%) and Hong Kong (3.7%).

Read more: Security and the Internet of Things: what you need to know

As the security company notes, the countries that come under attack most frequently are technologically advanced and/or have a developed banking system, which attracts the cybercriminals’ attention.

It also says that financial threats are not limited to banking malware programmes which attack the clients of online banking systems. Apart from banking malware (83%), financial threats are posed by Bitcoin miners (9%) — these are malware programmes that use the victim’s computer’s computational resources to generate bitcoins, as well as bitcoin wallet stealers (6%) and keyloggers (2%).

Small businesses under threat

While we’ve grown used to attacks taking on big companies and government agencies, Kaspersky notes that small and medium-sized businesses are increasingly coming under attack. Businesses working in chemical industry, nanotechnologies, education, agriculture, mass media and construction are particularly vulnerable it says.

During the three month period covered by the Kaspersky report an average of 23.9% of internet users’ computers across the world came under a web-borne attack at least once. This is 2.4 percentage points lower than in Q1.