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A survey of mobile malware in the wild

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Published:17 October 2011Publication History

ABSTRACT

Mobile malware is rapidly becoming a serious threat. In this paper, we survey the current state of mobile malware in the wild. We analyze the incentives behind 46 pieces of iOS, Android, and Symbian malware that spread in the wild from 2009 to 2011. We also use this data set to evaluate the effectiveness of techniques for preventing and identifying mobile malware. After observing that 4 pieces of malware use root exploits to mount sophisticated attacks on Android phones, we also examine the incentives that cause non-malicious smartphone tinkerers to publish root exploits and survey the availability of root exploits.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Conferences
      SPSM '11: Proceedings of the 1st ACM workshop on Security and privacy in smartphones and mobile devices
      October 2011
      96 pages
      ISBN:9781450310000
      DOI:10.1145/2046614

      Copyright © 2011 ACM

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      Publication History

      • Published: 17 October 2011

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