According to a new Zimperium report, the volume of mobile malware, mobile-specific phishing sites, and mobile vulnerabilities increased significantly in 2022.
Compiled by Mobile Security Vendors Global Mobile Threat Report 2023 Gained from in-house zLabs research and third-party industry data and partner insights.
According to the report, by 2022, the proportion of phishing sites targeting mobile devices will increase from 75% to 80% year-over-year. The average user is 6-10 times more likely to fall for her SMS phishing attack than an email-based phishing attack. added the report.
Zimperium detected an average of 4 malicious or phishing links clicked per device protected by anti-phishing technology.
Read more about mobile threats: conversational attacks, the fastest growing mobile threat
Phishing is not the only threat facing BYOD and corporate devices. Zimperium has detected a 51% increase in mobile his malware variants from 2021 to 2022, reaching 920,000 unique samples. Each week last year, it claimed to have protected customers from 2,000 never-seen-before malware variants.
According to the report, from 2021 to 2022, the proportion of Android devices with detected malware increased from 1 in 50 to 1 in 20.
As part of this work, Zimperium detected over 3,000 unique spyware samples. Last year, EMEA (35%) and North America (25%) had the highest percentage of devices affected by spyware.
Mobile vulnerabilities are also on the rise. Bugs detected in the Android ecosystem increased by 138% in 2022, but Apple’s iOS accounted for 80% of actively exploited zero-day attacks last year, the report notes.
According to Zimperium, 43% of devices detected as compromised were neither jailbroken nor rooted and fully exploited by threat actors. This figure is a 187% increase from the previous year.
Zimperium detected over 3,000 unique spyware samples. EMEA and North America have the highest percentage of devices affected by spyware, with 35% in EMEA and 25% in North America.
All of this is important because according to Zimperium, at least 60% of endpoints accessing corporate assets are believed to be mobile devices.
“With malicious actors increasingly targeting smartphones as high-value targets, it’s clear that mobile threats are becoming more frequent and dangerous,” said Phil Hochmuth, Program Vice President, Enterprise Mobility, IDC. said. “This should serve as a wake-up call for businesses to increase their focus and investment in their mobile security tools and practices.”
