AVG RELEASES Q2 2012 COMMUNITY POWERED THREAT REPORT

PRESS RELEASES

AVG RELEASES Q2 2012 COMMUNITY POWERED THREAT REPORT

THE QUARTERLY AVG COMMUNITY POWERED THREAT REPORT FOR Q2 2012 WAS RELEASED ON 25 JULY.

Social engineering: this quarter saw an uplift in socially engineered attacks which deceive mobile device users into downloading and then enabling malware to run as root. This has the effect of turning a mobile device into a zombie and providing full control over it to the malware author. PC-based malware that was socially engineered was also identified, including an email scam targeting Asian markets and the US, as well as a mass injection SQL attack using celebrity sex videos and fake antivirus to entrap people. Socially engineered attacks are more sophisticated in their approach, making even users who may have been victims in the past likely to fall prey again.

Mobile: cybercriminals continued their focus on the Android operating system for smartphones this quarter. Given Android now holds 59 per cent of the market share, according to the latest IDC figures, it will increasingly become a lucrative attack vector. Mobile users were tricked into downloading malware which was hidden in seemingly legitimate applications such as ‘Angry Birds Space’. This then allows the hacker to monetize from the infected device as they wish, and to download additional malicious code or connect the device to a botnet.

Threat geography: one notable theme in the last three months was the amount of malware originating from China. Email scams and malicious Android applications uploaded to third party application markets were just two of the threats identified. These targeted China and in some cases, neighboring countries including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the US.

Download the full Q2 2012 Community Powered Threat Report.

This Executive Summary provides an overview of the analysis and findings.

This Infographic summarizes the top findings.