November 8, 2013

In 2013, Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web started using a new system to collect statistics, so that it could promptly obtain information about the malicious applications that are threatening Google Android. An analysis of the data collected in October showed that the Dr.Web resident monitor under Android detected malware about 11 million times, and over 4 million threats to Android were detected by the scanner. These figures correspond to data obtained in September 2013.

According to statistics collected by Doctor Web's analysts, from October 1-31, 2013, users ran the Dr.Web scanner for Android around 23 million times. The anti-virus monitor identified malware and non-recommended applications on mobile devices as many as 11,840,671 times, slightly more often than in the previous month. In September the figure was 11,500,000. On-demand scanning revealed 4,476,437 samples of the various threats, which is quite similar to the previous month.

The geography of the mobile devices on which the Dr.Web for Android anti-virus monitor detected malicious programs is as follows: Russia ranked first with 3,914,680 detections; second and third places went to Saudi Arabia and Iraq, with 1,612,518 and 1,608,631 positives respectively. More detailed information is provided in the following table:

Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq are also the undisputed leaders in terms of the number of malware programs detected on mobile devices by the scanner.

According to statistics gathered by Dr.Web for Android, the most "infected" cities include Moscow, Riyadh, Baghdad, Jeddah, Kiev, St. Petersburg, Rostov-on-Don and Yekaterinburg.

In general, we can say that mobile devices remain a major target for virus writers today, and the number of malware programs threatening Android is growing steadily. The data provided in this review indicates that such threats are particularly relevant in Russia and other CIS (former Soviet Union) countries.

To protect against cyber crime, Doctor Web recommends that you regularly use the full-fledged version of Dr.Web for Android—it will help save you money and protect sensitive data.

Doctor Web's analysts are continuing to monitor the situation regarding threats to Android.