Symantec: Android not a major target for attacks

But attacks will come in the future, security company warns.

Jun 9, 2011 by

During its annual Next@Norton security event here in San Francisco, Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC)   placed a fair amount of emphasis on mobile computing – especially since Symantec has just formally released their protection software for the Android platform.

According to Symantec, Android is not yet a major target for attacks for the simple reason that it is not economically beneficial to attack Android devices yet.  As long as users do not store sensitive information or use the platform for financial transactions, then there is no incentive to target the platform.  Although that looks to change in the near future.

The malware landscape is much different from the early 80s where viruses turned up for the PC for the first time. Back then it was fun just to disrupt the work, but now criminals want to benefit financially from the attacks. Symantec is very active in the mobile world and is primarily focusing on Android and not so much at iOS for that simple reason that iOS is a closed operating system, which makes antivirus development very difficult.

Also, Symantec sees the Android Marketplace as much more vulnerable since the applications are not vetted by Google.  Finally Symantec reminds users that if they download a free application to consider why the application is free. In very few cases it is pure altruism, but more likely in order to follow the user and get hold of information stored on the platform.S|A

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Mads Ølholm