Report Shows Decrease in Malware and Ads Infections in US and India

The latest mobile security and report from NQ Mobile (News – Alert) reveals very interesting statistics relating to malware infections. In the second quarter of 2013, China led the world with 31.71 percent of malware infections. Russia came in second with 17.15 percent; India had 10.38 percent; the U.S. had 6.53 percent and Thailand closed out the top five with 6.04 percent.

Of those five, only India and the U.S. had fewer infections in the second quarter of 2013 than they did in the first quarter.

NQ Mobile maintains headquarters in both Dallas, Texas, and Beijing, China. The company offers security products like NQ Security and ads by, which has anti-virus, anti-theft, privacy, browsing protection and a performance optimizer as standard options. Remote locking, wiping and locating, SIM removal alerts, scream alarm, intruder photo, anti-eavesdropping and financial protection are additionally available at a premium.

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NQ regularly provides reports tracking mobile security statistics. In addition to the figures mentioned previously, the mid-year report identified over 51,000 new threats the first half of 2013, a 78 percent increase of the total from 2012. A total of 21 million devices were infected.

Forty-three percent of malware consisted of potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) like root exploits, spyware and Trojans. Nearly one-third (32 percent) of malware collected personal data and 23 percent of malware disabled phones.

Users need to be aware of the most common ways that malware infects phones. An insidious tactic known as app repackaging happens when malicious code is added to an otherwise normal app and downloaded by users unaware of the tainted app they are about to install. Once installed, the malware can do things like take over the phone to send texts or grab sensitive user data.

Malicious URLs lure users into entering passwords and other confidential info. Smishing uses malicious URLs to run up a user’s phone bill by sending expensive texts that malware authors make money from.

It would be easy to dismiss NQ’s reports as a self-serving marketing campaign, but after a cursory glance appears genuine. Nowhere in the report is there any attempt to sell an NQ product. Since protecting against threats requires constant monitoring, companies like NQ would be in the best position to track malware trends. As far as free reports go, this is among the more informative and eye-opening.