Mobile and Social Media Security Threats Grow – Facebook and Android Under Attacks. What Nigeria Must Do

AVG Technologies, a global provider of internet and mobile security has released its  “AVG Community Powered Threat Report – Q1 2011,” providing insight and background on the trends and developments in the world of online threats. In this report, Android malware is growing rapidly and the one on Facebook is also rising.

This trend is in line with previous patterns where threats correlate with penetration of  operating systems. As Microsoft Windows was penetrating. so were the threats on that platform. Now Android is becoming hugely popular, the same pattern is expected. The report notes that:

“These campaigns are well planned and well funded; therefore, they demand not only for very effective counter technical measures but also for the need to raise awareness among the average user.”

The trend in Q1-2011 is revealed to be an explosive increase in the overall number of global attacks. Within this, the most notable developments were a major increase in malicious campaigns which exploited the viral nature of Facebook users, which have increased threefold in the last 12 months.

 

The United States is still the dominant source of spam with English as the main language used in spam messages. However, with a Brazilian ISP as the most used internet provider and Portuguese as the second language, Brazil is a clear runner up.

 

With smartphones becoming more like computers, the first quarter saw a notable increase in risk for smartphone users and the Android platform in particular; AVG blocked an average of 100,000 spam and phishing text messages per day.

 

The open source nature of the OS as well as the open-garden approach in allowing users to install software on the mobile device opens the door for hackers to write malicious code. This is why Android users should install additional security solutions such as AVG Mobilation for Android which is helping prevent users from downloading over 10,000 infected applications a day.

The reality is that if these security threats are not addressed, it could stifle innovation especially in the mobile financial business. Nigeria should watch this pattern and begin to create a process to prevent the breakdown that happened in the web in the nation. The activities of 417 and ‘Yahoo boys’ made Internet to be seen as not a decent place for commerce. It continues to undermine thrust in people’s acceptability of the medium for business. Mobile cannot be the same and NCC must step forward and manage this.