Viruses are flourishing on Android devices

Last week, for the first time, more people in the world surfed the Internet from Android phones than from Windows computers. Criminals who create malicious code have therefore drawn in: they create nine thousand new viruses every day.

AG DATA registered 3,2 million new android pests last year, a 40 percent increase over the previous year. The rate of emergence of new viruses is dizzying: while in 2011 only four thousand malicious codes were discovered by security companies, by 2013 there was talk of millions.

The growth is driven by the popularity of Android. Last November, Internet users had already crossed a magical line: more people were browsing from mobile devices than from desktop computers. By March of this year, however, Android alone had taken over the title of the world’s leading Internet operating system: 37,93 percent of Internet users browse the Google platform, while Windows dropped to second place with 37,91 percent.

Currently, nine thousand new Android pests appear every day, in connection with which G DATA warns that it is worth installing virus protection on Android phones, and for companies to introduce mobile device management software that also includes virus protection.