South Africa has become a hotbed for malicious mobile applications.
This week, Trend Micro released statistics on malicious mobile application downloads and the virus count for the first quarter in the local threat landscape.
Research by the cyber security solutions company shows that in January, SA had a total malicious mobile app download of 40 734 and the virus count was 511.
In February, the total count and virus count went down to 37 470 and 456 respectively, and in March, the numbers spiked again with the total malicious mobile app downloads totalling 55 646 and the virus count sitting at 954.
A recent report by the GSM Association found SA leads in mobile application downloads in the Sub-Saharan Africa market as consumers in Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya race to catch up.
Trend Micro says South Africans are not immune to being caught in the trap of malicious apps and need to become increasingly vigilant in what they do and what they trust on their mobile devices.
"Mobile devices are an easier target for cyber criminals because so few users have the software and settings in place on their devices to protect them from malware. Mobile malware provides an easier way for cyber criminals to make money," says Darryn O'Brien, country manager at Trend Micro Southern Africa.
Mobile malware is becoming increasingly stronger, says Trend Micro, with capabilities to protect itself, like certain routines that keep it hidden.
Another security solutions vendor, Kaspersky Lab, says mobile malware continues to evolve towards monetisation, with malware authors trying to ensure their creations are capable of making money from their victims.
The firm notes mobile Trojans targeting user bank accounts continue to develop. Some malicious mobile programs work in combination with Windows-based Trojans to capture mTAN passwords (one-time passwords used in two-factor authentication) that are used for authorising bank transactions. Many of the other mobile programs used to steal money from user bank accounts operate independently, says Kaspersky Lab.
Trend Micro's attention was recently caught by a particular mobile malware that had stealthy attack tactics and could lock a user's device. This new malware is capable of locking a victim's phone as a failsafe and without the use of external commands.
The company also acquired a sample of a fake banking app in Russia called Fanta SDK that is capable of changing a cellphone password when a user tries to remove or deactivate the app's admin privileges.
Users can get Fanta SDK from malicious URL links for benign apps like "system" or by downloading apps from third-party app stores. For example, the message would contain a request for users to download the latest version of the banking app immediately for security reasons.
"Install the necessary security software and keep it up to date on all mobile devices. Be wary of apps from third-party app stores and even from Google Play as fake apps can be very convincing and realistic," O'Brien concludes.
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