
Android malware infections skyrocket, says Juniper - llambda
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2011/11/juniper-reports-skyrocketing-android-malware-infections.ars
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idspispopd
> And as Microsoft has discovered, the market leader tends to get a
> disproportionate share of attention from malware authors.

They seriously can't be playing that card when android was neither the first
smart phone, nor the most populous until quite recently. Malware has been
present from early on the platform, and worse has been distributed via the
google application market. It's clear that Google's approach to openness
brings the unfortunate consequences of non-curated content, this is identical
to regular personal computers and puts the onus of security on the user.

The advent of the cheapest per feature smart phone however means that this is
also the platform that will most likely be picked up in bulk by the
population(already has), a population who isn't savvy and probably needs their
hand held when it comes to common sense computing.

Part of the fault also lies with google as some apps are gaining root access
to avoid remote-revocation, however even before rooting the phone they were
allowed unfettered access to areas that should be highly secured such as
SMS/Call features and access to personal information such as the address book
and browsing history. When Google launched the android market, they took away
the unpopular choices made by Apple: things like signed-code and more rigorous
app approval criteria, but they didn't reformulate the system or add
meaningful changes to protect their own users from the predictable malware
consequences. (i.e the differences between consoles versus open platforms)

However, just like the open personal computing platform, google will be able
to incrementally improve the software and possibly stamp out the vast majority
of weak points. The downside is for the consumers who are stuck with premium-
sms bills & possible identity theft, while developers get burned because
regular consumers(i.e the vast majority) become scared to experiment with
google marketplace.

