Android phone infected with malware? Not possible, apparently
Android is the mobile platform most susceptible to, and targeted by, malware, or so the received wisdom goes.
In 2013, the number of Android malware programs out there rose 600%, according to a report from Sophos Labs and Kaspersky Lab reported 98% of all mobile malware that same year targeted the Android platform.
In 2015, Kasperky Lab also found what it claimed was "the first malware to successfully outwit .. CAPTCHA", dubbed Podec, which signed up thousands of people to premium-rate SMS services. Once again, Podec was an Android malware.
But if you ask the Android team about malware on its mobile platform, you may be surprised to find it's not something they discuss internally.
"There is so much structure and connotation around the word malware that internally we don't use that word," Adrian Ludwig, lead Android Engineer, told RSA Conference yesterday,according to The Register.
Instead, the company uses the phrase "Potentially Harmful Applications", or PHAs.
"['Malware'] creates too much confusion ... we have something like 20 different subcategories of [PHAs] like trojans, fraud and abuse," he said.
PC Pro isn't quite sure how ditching "malware" in favour of "PHAs" makes things less confusing, particularly as "malware" is also used as an umbrella term for things like trojans, spyware, and adware.
Speaking of spyware, Ludwig said, rather controversially: "When we say it, we mean that is grabs too much data and sends it off the device. There's a profound difference between grabbing all your SMS and grabbing all your installed apps to send off your device. It's often called 'aggressive advertising'."
We're not entirely sure that many in the security business, or even European regulators, would agree with that sentiment, but that's another discussion for another day.
Source : - pcpro
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