Android adware on the rise

Adware targeting Google's Android operating system appear to be on the rise and increased by a whopping 61 percent during a five-month period that ended last January, a security vendor said.

 

Bitdefender said its research showed these adware can gather personal data from address book contacts and text messages stored in a mobile phone or tablet, said tech site TechHive, which got a copy of the report.

 

"More and more unknown third parties now have access to user browsing history, phone numbers, email address and everything they need to compile comprehensive and personalized user profiles," it said.

 

Such personal data are used to deliver targeted ads to a user, it noted.

 

Citing Bitdefender's findings, TechHive said the adware growth is partly due to some developers bundling them into their apps.

 

Bitdefender mobile threat researcher Liviu Arsene pointed out developers usually add adware to an app so they earn money while offering the app for free.

 

However, Arsene said the consequences may be "what users don’t know and many developers don’t care about."

 

As a result, TechHive said "user privacy is increasingly taking a backseat to profit for developers and advertisers.”

 

On the other hand, Dirk Sigurdson, director of engineering for Mobilisafe at Rapid7 in Boston, said many Android developers turn to adware because Android users are not too keen on paid apps.

 

Sigurdson also noted Android shows a user a list of permissions an app wants, "but it’s an all-or-nothing proposition."

 

Bitdefender said the adware exploits Android’s permissions mechanism to harvest a user's data.

 

“Most of the time a user will download the application, ignore the list of permissions and just click OK,” Sigurdson said.

 

Holiday season

 

TechHive said the adware was particularly active during the holidays in 2012, with more than half of the increase occurring in November.

 

“While adware is not inherently malicious, it can collect phone numbers, contacts, and email addresses that are broadcasted to third-party services or sold to the highest bidder,” the study notes. “The underground market greatly values such data as it can be used by marketers to profile users,” it said.

 

Malware growth

 

Worse, Bitdefender noted a 27-percent growth in malware targeting Android devices, as more people use their personal devices at work.

 

Such a scenario could allow malware makers to harvest company information from an infected device. — TJD, GMA News