The security firm, Gartner Data has said in its report that a new case of Android malware comes up in every 10 seconds. This revelation has created a sense of restlessness among the Android users as the platform comprises of 81.7 per cent share of the market across the world. In their quarterly report, the security researchers at G Data reportedly unearthed about 8,400 new cases of malware every day, which comes to roughly one in every 10.29 seconds. Unbelievable, isn’t it? How we manage to live amidst so much of eternal threat.
The report reveals that last year approximately 3.2 million new Android malware were discovered and that number is now expected to reach 3.5 million this year. As per the report, the fragmentation of Android was to be blamed for the expansion of the malware with nearly 7.1 per cent of Android users using the latest version of Android 7.0, 7.1 Nougat, and OS.
Recently, Google showed the Android developer dashboard that clearly displayed the figures. About 32 per cent of the Android users around the world were shown as using Android 5.0 or 5.1 Lollipop, while near about 31.2 per cent had their devices running on Android 6.0 Marshmallow.
Furthermore, there’s a big issue with the implementation of the updates released by Google. While any update takes immediate effect on the latest versions of the operating system, the devices running on the older versions remain unprotected. Although attempts are being made to slowly implement the updates to the older versions, it usually takes several months before all Android devices get the security update.
The biggest reason behind this is that there are several manufacturers that make Android devices so being able to deliver the updates to all these devices becomes challenging for Google. The security updates and patches often need to pass through the OEM before being pushed to the mobile devices.
If you own an Android device then this revelation might come as a shock to you. Although we are all are that Android devices are vulnerable to external threats, a new malware every 10 seconds is just too much to digest.
We suggest that you take the important precautions to ensure that your Android device stays secure from malware and other virus attacks. Always make sure you download apps from the official Google App Store, never give out your information to a site that doesn’t appear to be genuine, avoid clicking on links that look misleading, always lock your mobile phone and remember to change your password frequently.
