16 million mobile devices hit by malware in 2014

Summary:​Around 16 million mobile devices worldwide were hit by malware as of the end of 2014, while attacks on communications networks rose during the year, according to new research by Alcatel-Lucent.

French telecommunications equipment company Alcatel-Lucent has published a report compiled by its Motive Security Labs division, which found that malware infections in mobile devices increased by 25 percent in 2014, compared to a 20 percent increase in 2013.

According to Alcatel-Lucent, the current malware infection rate for mobile devices stands at 0.68 percent, a figure which the company's Motive Labs used to estimate that around 16 million devices worldwide were likely to have been infected by malicious software as of the end of 2014.

Mobile spyware was identified as being on the increase, according to the report, with six of the mobile malware top 20 list now made of mobile spyware. These are apps that are used to spy on the phone's owner, and can track a phone's location, monitor incoming and outgoing calls and text messages, monitor emails, and track a phone user's web browsing.

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