Statistics shows that even though ransomware pieces are mostly found on computers, the number of such infections created to target mobile devices has grown significantly. In fact, mobile ransomware has tripled in numbers in this year`s Q1. Kaspersky Lab`s report confirms this information, stating that in the first few months of 2017, researchers have detected 218,625 mobile ransomware pieces while in 2016`s first quarter, they were three times less – 61,832.
“Ransomware targeting mobile devices soared in first quarter, with new ransomware families and modifications continuing to proliferate. People need to bear in mind that attackers can try to block access to their data not only on a PC but also on their mobile device.” – says Kaspersky’s Senior Malware Analyst – Roman Unucheck.
According to Kaspersky`s report, the most used mobile ransomware infection is Trojan-Ransom. AndroidOS.Fusob.h, taking credit for almost 45% of all mobile attacks. Once infected by this Trojan, it asks for admin privileges and then spies on you and your information. It not only know your GPS coordinates, call history, and other details, but it also uploads them to a malicious server. This server is able to send back a command and clock your device.
Researchers at Kaspersky Lab also detected 480 million attacks from online resources from more than 190 countries all over the world. Also, 80 million URLS was found to be used for malicious activity. Moreover, the company`s mobile security products detected more than 32,000 mobile banking Trojans as well as 1.2 million malicious installation packages.
“Attempted infections by malware that aims to steal money via online access to bank accounts were registered on 288,000 user computers.” – the company adds.
As the ransomware industry has proven itself quite lucrative, apparently hackers have decided not to restrain themselves by only targeting Windows PCs. The tripled number of mobile ransomware pieces during only the first quarter of 2017 confirms that.
