A host of nasty internet threats await unwary Android smartphone users when they update their applications, a computer security firm warned at a briefing yesterday.
The number of items of malware, or malicious software - viruses, worms and Trojan horses - has grown as phones powered by the Android operating system become more popular, said Patrick Chan, assistant marketing manager of security company F-Secure. 'Viruses usually take the form of free apps,' he warned.
The number of viruses detected by F-Secure has surged from several dozen cases last year to hundreds this year, said Goh Su-gim, F-Secure's Asia security adviser.
In March, at least 50 virus-tainted applications were found on Android Market, the main source of downloaded applications for Adroid devices. The applications were downloaded by 200,000 users in the four days it took managers to discover the problem and halt it, Chan said. The infected apps were presented as if they were free copies of legitimate, paid applications.
He said it was risky to download apps from any website other than the app-maker's official platform. One Trojan horse, which F-Secure calls Hong Tou Tou, makes infected phones vulnerable to hackers, who can then see the users' text conversations. Embedded in software for games, it was found on a mainland internet site.
While the Mac platform faces fewer virus attacks than Windows, Goh said Macs were far from trouble-free. One Trojan horse is disguised as software that scans Mac computers for security threats - MacDefender, MacSecurity, MacProtector and MacGuard. It pretends to do scans, and warns users about viruses that do not exist, aiming to trick people into paying for fake software.