The increasing mobile breach in Africa is being attributed to the vulnerable Android platform. Users in Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa have been put on notice over increased hacking.
Android platform is a fan favourite in Africa as cheaper smartphone models run on it. But the quick uptake of the smartphone, the use of mobile money and now mobile banking is making the platform an avenue for online insecurity.
Kaspersky Lab has released its findings in collaboration with INTERPOL and suggests that every fifth android user is at risk from attacks.
“A total of 1,000,000 Android device users around the world encountered dangerous software between August 2013 and July 2014, representing about one fifth of all Kaspersky Lab mobile product users. In fact, this period was the peak of cyber-attacks registered in recent years,” the report said.
“Among African countries Kaspersky Lab registered almost a similar number of mobile malware attacks in South Africa and in Nigeria, some less in Kenya. In South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria the top 3 most active malware types look a bit different: RiskTool leads, followed with quite a distance by Trojan-SMS, after which goes AdWare,” the report continued.
Kaspersky Lab has released its multi-device internet solution protection that can be used on three different devices in one licence. The company hopes that more people will look at their devices as computers that can be hacked rather than like feature phones.