If you are an app (applications) buff downloading them like crazy on your mobile phone, you’d better be careful.

Cyber criminals have begun to swarm the Android app platforms with malicious ones.

Malicious apps that belong to the FAKEINST and OPFAKE families are known for imitating popular apps to attract users. India ranks second in the list of countries that face the high risk of privacy exposure due to app use. Saudi Arabia tops the list.

Phishing (or similar looking sites) attacks, too, have emerged a major threat in the mobile space.

And majority of the mobile sites spoofed were banking sites.

“Financial service related sites were most spoofed in the first quarter, showing that phishers, whether on computers or on mobile devices, will always go for where the money is,” Trend Micro, the online security solutions firm, said, announcing the threat landscape for the first quarter. The firm said an Android malware variant that could send and receive commands (from those who launch the applications on our computers and phones) was found on about 10 lakh phones.

“The malware can update its script to evade anti-malware detection. Using this tool, malicious users are able to control infected devices,” the report said.

Hackers target gamers by spreading fake versions of popular games. “We spotted fake versions of Temple Run 2 and spoofed apps that offer cheats for the game Candy Crush Saga. These apps aggressively pushed ads and gathered personal information from the infected mobile devices,” it said.

India continues its lead in the list of spam-manufacturing countries.

>kurmanath.kanchi@thehindu.co.in

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