Up to now, mobile malware were certainly growing, but still minor compared to PC malware. Well, this is about to change. We have recently acknowledged a mobile malware getting in our top 10 virus activity, where usually there were only PC malware. The (sad) winner is Android/Plankton.B!tr, with a record prevalence of 4.42% (note: prevalence is the number of new hits in a given time frame divided by the number of fortigates reporting during that same interval of time). This would currently rank it as the 6th most active virus - PC malware included. Actually, Plankton (also known as Counterclank and NewyearL) is a very intrusive form of advertisement which changes your browser's home page, adds bookmarks, shortcuts or records your search queries. Some other AV vendors classify it as an adware, anyway, what's for sure is that end-users won't want it on their phones... and the fact is that it is more and more wide spread...
This definitely is a new milestone in mobile malware's history. I take the opportunity to draw your attention on the mobile world.
in May, we noted around 1,000 new Android malware per day - an impressive figure already. But it is not slowing down! In June, we actually received 1,200 new Android malware per day.
with the accelerating decline of PC shipments, mobile malware are not only bound to grow, they are also bound take over PC malware!
A few striking figures:
Over 250,000 malicious Android samples in July 2013.
79 million PC shipments in 1Q 2013 (which includes laptops)
418 million mobile phone shipments in 1Q 2013, including 216 million smartphones, and not including 49 million tablets.
Mobile malware analysts, get ready.
-- the Crypto Girl
Source: sesuriv-01-pot-eht-ni-steg-erawlam-elibom/tsop/moc.tenitrof.golb