Malware attacks on mobile devices in India increased by more than nine-fold between October 2020 and March 2021 period, cyber security firm Check Point Technologies said on Wednesday.
According to its 2021 mobile security report, 97 percent of organisations in 2020 faced mobile threats that used multiple attack vectors and 46 percent of organisations globally had at least one employee download a malicious mobile application.
“There has been a staggering 845 percent increase in Mobile attacks since October 2020 in India. The total number of mobile attacks in India in Oct 2020 was 1,345.
“The total number of mobile attacks in India in March 2021 was 12,719,” the report said.
As per the report, almost every organisation experienced at least one mobile malware attack in 2020, and 93 percent of these attacks originated in a device network, wherein attempts were made to trick users into installing a malicious payload via infected websites or web links, or to steal users’ credentials.
“Cyber criminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit our growing reliance on mobiles. Enterprises need to adopt mobile security solutions which seamlessly protect devices from today’s advanced cyber threats, and users should be careful to use only apps from official app stores to minimise their risk,” Neatsun Ziv, VP Threat Prevention at Check Point Software, said.
In 2020, Check Point found a 15 percent increase in banking Trojan activity, where users’ mobile banking credentials are at risk of being stolen.
Check Point’s Achilles research showed that at least 40 percent of the world’s mobile devices are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks due to flaws in their chipsets, and need urgent patching.
In another development, hackers have allegedly compromised servers of enterprise communications firm Route Mobile, even as the company claimed that data of its customers is safe and its cyber security team is investigating the matter.
(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)
