10% home networks, over 0.5% mobile devices infected with malware: Alcatel-Lucent

Security threats to fixed and mobile broadband networks are on the rise, said Alcatel-Lucent.

There was an increase in malicious software or malware used by hackers to gain access to devices for corporate espionage, spying on individuals, theft of personal information, generating spam, denial of service attacks on business and governments and millions of Euros in fraudulent banking and advertising scams.

The latest Kindsight Security Labs Malware Quarterly Report said 10 percent of home networks and over 0.5 percent of mobile devices were infected with malware, both increases from the previous quarter.

6 percent of home networks exhibited high-level threats, such as bots, rootkits and Trojan banking viruses infecting computers, computer programs and applications running on computers.

Alcatel-Lucent

The ZeroAccess botnet continues to be the most common malware threat, infecting 0.8 percent of broadband users.

In mobile networks, the vast majority of infected devices are either Android phones or Windows laptops tethered to a phone on connected directly through a mobile USB stick or MIFI hub.

Mobile malware continues to grow with a six-fold increase in the number of Android malware samples.

“Malware and cybersecurity threats continue to be a growing problem for home networks and mobile devices, particularly for Android smartphones and tablets which are increasingly targeted,” said Kevin McNamee, security architect and director of Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight Security Labs.

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