Mobile malware is on the rise and has increased significantly in Q3 of this year with malvertising being the top delivery method. Of the top 20 most “popular” mobile malware discovered in Q3 2015, malvertising was behind nearly half. According to Kaspersky Labs’ Q3 Threat Evolution report, principal senior security researcher David Emm was quoted as saying malware will “often root the device of a victim and use superuser privileges, making it very difficult, if not impossible, to combat them.”
What is malvertising? It’s the use of online ads to spread malware. The malware writers will inject malicious code in to online advertisements. Criminals make the ads very tempting to click, thus they are referred to as "click bait". Not all "click bait" is malicious; legitimate advertisers are using the same techniques to garner traction, but be very cautious whenever you are clicking on an ad because there is no way of knowing which is which. Once the malicious ad is clicked, the malware is delivered to your device. There are no signs of the download taking place.
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Avoid clicking on sensational ads. Most of the time they are not going to provide you with the information you want or expect, so it’s better not to take the risk that they may be infected.
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Make sure anti-malware is installed on your device and is kept up-to-date at all times. It’s generally recommended that the auto-update feature is enabled so that important updates are not missed.
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Consider using ad blocking software. There are many on the market and some good ones are either free or on a donation basis. They block most ads from even appearing on the screen. This could help prevent accidental clicking as well.
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Keep all operating system software patched with the most recent security and critical updates. As soon as they are available, apply them.
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Keep all browsers updated as well. Remember that each browser has different requirements for applying updates. Some will automatically apply patches and others may not. If a patch to a plug-in, such as Adobe Flash is required, it needs to be applied to each browser separately.
Sometimes those ads really are hard to resist. We get it. Just to be on the safe side, make sure when you’re backing up your computers you also do a current backup of your mobile devices. Should you come down with one of these maladies, it can be restored from that backup and probably save a lot of time and frustration.
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