40% of UAE Android smartphones at risk

More than 40 per cent of Android-based smartphone and tablet owners in the UAE do not use any security software to protect their devices against cyber-threats, according to a survey conducted by B2B International and Kaspersky Lab in summer 2013.

Meanwhile, Android has long been the most popular platform for ordinary users and the cybercriminals who use malware to steal from them.

Only 58 per cent of smartphone and 57 per cent of tablet owners in the UAE participating in the survey stated that they have installed a security solution on their devices and are now using it. Other respondents are content to rely on the limited security features integrated in the OS, or trust their own instincts to keep them safe.

Meanwhile, for cybercriminals Android is well-established as the top target among all mobile platforms. According to the Kaspersky Lab cloud service Kaspersky Security Network, which accumulates data about urgent cyber-threats, 99 per cent of current malware samples targeting mobile devices have been developed for the Android platform. And this threat is growing: Kaspersky Lab specialists detected 35,000 malicious samples for the whole of 2012, while the figure for the first half of 2013 was over 47,000.

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