A Guy said:

The capabilities of malware targeting the market-leading Android platform are mimicking those of Trojans that have wrung profits from Windows PC users for years, a new study shows.

With nearly an 80 percent market share, Android's mobile dominance parallels Windows in the PC world, making Google's operating system the "mobile world's equivalent," Kaspersky Lab said in its latest Threat Evolution report, released on Thursday.

Source

A Guy

Android is mimicking Windows so well that virtually all new malware is exclusively target the Android platform. F-Secure agrees with Kaspersky and provides statistics in their mobile threat report, Q1/13, quote:



Source

The other platforms, BB, iOS, and Windows Mobile had none; this is more due to the "walled garden" for apps, than the actual security of the platform.

Market share of the platform has a lot to do with the platform being the most popular target for hackers...

aditya said:

Android gets as many features as windows and more games and android's popularity is growing day by day so it's also a target for hackers

Popularity is certainly one aspect of Android being the target; however, it does not explain why Symbian is the distant other platform of target for the hackers.

The alternative explanation could be the JAVA ME programming language used for both the Android and Symbian* platform. Couple this with the "open garden" type of applications, where end users are free to install any apps from anywhere, then it becomes clearer why the hackers attack these platforms. Other platform, BB, iOS, and Windows 7,8 phone do not use JAVA in their OS functions and control the availability of the apps via their "walled garden".

Both the Android and Symbian platforms can be secured by the end users, there's no question about that. The question is however, will the majority of the end users take time to secure their smart devices? The chances are they won't and cell service companies aren't too eager to provide updates either....

*- Application Services Layer

I might have to start looking into some of the locking down options for Android devices,
Being I was Interested in acquiring one and moving from iphone 4 in the next couple of months or just go to 5,
Mobile banking I never do but these devices hold quite a few passwords which is a concern email for several accounts...
I have noticed my step dad has had his email account hacked a few times possibly Android is why or might just be funky Yahoo ?
Cheers for the article :)

There are plenty of security firewall and virus apps for android you just have to use them most people don't even use that stuff

That is why they get attacked Google play store has a big selection

Solarstarshines said:

There are plenty of security firewall and virus apps for android you just have to use them most people don't even use that stuff

Following Windows history, it won't be long that the mobile malware's first action will be disabling the AV and FW, even if they are installed.

Solarstarshines said:

That is why they get attacked Google play store has a big selection

The "big selection" makes it relatively easy to hide malicious apps from systematic scanning of new apps. And Google still has this problem, quote:

CBS_MONEY_WATCH said:

Recently, for example, Symantec blogged about a worrisome trend in the Google Play store: A flood of scammy apps that are difficult for Google to detect, and therefore stay available for download for several days before being removed.

The apps in question are being churned out on a daily basis by a small number of malware producers, and as Symantec says, must be generating sufficient revenue for the production to continue. Indeed, the tally is over 1,200 apps in the last seven months.

What makes these apps tricky to detect is that there's nothing explicitly malicious in code; instead, they're making a play for user bank accounts via social engineering and simple links. Users who install the apps are taken to websites where they need to sign up and are charged large sums of money without warning (as much as $3,000/year) thanks to a carefully hidden license agreement.

Source

Just couple of month ego, this had been reported at number of sites:

Family of “BadNews” malware in Google Play downloaded up to 9 million times

Until the next "BadNews" malware comes around, people should secure their Android phones...

That maybe true but I also use the trusted anti virus I use on my own machine to fuel android

Also it depends on what you are actually doing with it as well the worst the can do is disable your phone at best you can always replace it or reset factory default settings

wiping the drive clean only people who honestly should be worried are Hotspot users and people who are swapping accounts and other precious documents amongst themselves ,Also there is a Root explorer that allows you to extract files and swing them to your SD and lock it down as well

I spent a lot of time working with the Android trying to understand it and how people were so fascinated by it and truly grabbed me as well

Trusted or not AV, it is up to the end users what they will click on. Dangle some porn, celebrity nude pics, etc., and most end users will click on anything, be that link, agreement, apps, etc.

Knowledgeable people, or techies are mostly not impacted by these malware; it is the majority of the people who will and be in trouble, just like Windows users...