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TrustGo Releases Summer Mobile Mayhem Report

Report tracks nearly 14,000 new malicious apps, identifies safest & riskiest marketplaces

 

Santa Clara, Calif., September 12, 2012 – TrustGo Mobile Inc. (TrustGo), a leading mobile security company, today released its TrustGo Summer Mobile Mayhem Report, revealing an unprecedented onslaught of malicious and risky apps on marketplaces around the world. For this report covering the summer months of June through August, TrustGo scanned 1.7 million apps found on 175 marketplaces worldwide, and categorized each app into one of four categories:

  • Certified (Safe to download)
  • Malicious (Containing a virus, Trojan, spyware, etc.)
  • High Risk (Containing code that leverages granted permissions to create a security risk) and,
  • Low Risk/Noisy (Has potential to annoy users with excessive notifications or advertisements).

Highlights of the report include:

  • Dramatic increase in malware from 11,822 to 25,580, an increase of 216% from the previous three-month period
  • China-based app marketplaces are the most risky in the world with 33.2% of apps flagged as Malicious, High Risk, or Low Risk/Noisy
  • Google Play ranks as the 5th safest marketplace, though currently hosts more than 90 malicious apps
  • The Anzhi marketplace in China is the most risky major market with a 62.8% risk rate; Aproov based in Europe was considered the safest overall at 2.1%
  • More than 1 in 6 apps available worldwide have High Risk code that can compromise user security
  • Games are most likely to be infected by risky code, social media and productivity apps are least likely
  • 94% of High Risk apps can send users mobile phone number to third parties.

The TrustGo Summer Mobile Mayhem Report provides a snapshot of the depth and breadth of the dangers faced by users who download from app marketplaces, stores and download sites. These marketplaces, predominantly based in the U.S., Europe, China and Russia, are accessible to an estimated 700 million smartphone users (Ericsson, June 2012) around the world. An infographic summarizing highlights of the report is accessible here: (link forthcoming).

“While viruses and risky apps are a global problem, some regions are more dangerous than others,” says Xuyang Li, founder and CEO of TrustGo. “Many Chinese users can’t access the Google Play marketplace, so a large number of third party stores have popped up to fill the void. Unfortunately, this has made China’s marketplaces especially insecure because many download sites haven’t set up controls necessary to keep bad apps off their platforms. TrustGo is vigilantly working with app marketplaces to alert them whenever we find risky and malicious apps.”

“The key takeaway from the TrustGo Mobile Mayhem Report is this: No marketplace is completely safe, and ultimately it’s the consumer that pays the price,” says Jeff Becker, Head of Marketing at TrustGo. “We are proud to be the first mobile security company to not only detect new threats like MMarketPay and SMSZombie, but also PREVENT infections by providing security ratings of all the apps users want to download in our Secure App Finder Engine™ (SAFE).”

About the TrustGo Summer Mobile Mayhem Report 2012

The TrustGo Summer Mobile Mayhem Report was developed based on extensive research and data gathered by TrustGo Security Labs. Using our patent-pending App Reputation Technology, TrustGo analyzes all new apps uploaded to monitored marketplaces, usually within three to five hours. Using a combination of machine-based scanning and human analysis, each app is classified into four distinct categories: Certified (safe), Malicious (containing a virus, spyware, Trojan, worm, etc.), High Risk (Non-malicious, but obtains permissions that can compromise user security), and Low Risk/Noisy (May deliver excessive or annoying notifications, alerts or advertisements). As of August 2012, TrustGo has analyzed and classified more than 1.7 million individual apps, marketplace copies and app versions on 175 marketplaces worldwide.

About TrustGo Mobile Inc.

TrustGo Mobile Inc. (TrustGo), a leading mobile security company, provides users a simple way to keep their devices safe. TrustGo’s total security and management solution provides advanced cloud-based protection for smartphones and tablets. It gives users greater freedom and control in their mobile lives through a comprehensive approach to security. In addition to real-time protection from malicious apps, websites, privacy breaches, theft and identity leaks, TrustGo also offers robust mobile device management (MDM) and secure app discovery features. TrustGo was founded by web security veterans in 2011 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. TrustGo is available now on Google Play. For more information, please visit www.trustgo.com.

Media contact:

Sharon Sim-Krause Joanne Seow
Phone: 415.420.1889 Phone: 858.699.4027
Email: sharon@sim-krause.com Email: joanne@sim-krause.com

 

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