Malware attacks on mobile devices in India jumped in Oct 2020-Mar 2021 period: Report

According to its 2021 mobile security report, 97 per cent of organisations in 2020 faced mobile threats that used multiple attack vectors and 46 per cent of organisations globally had at least one employee download a malicious mobile application.

''There has been a staggering 845 per cent increase in Mobile attacks since October 2020 in India. The total number of mobile attacks in India in Oct 2020 was 1,345.

''The total number of mobile attacks in India in March 2021 was 12,719,'' the report said.

As per the report, almost every organisation experienced at least one mobile malware attack in 2020 and 93 per cent of these attacks originated in a device network, wherein attempts were made to trick users into installing a malicious payload via infected websites or web links, or to steal users' credentials.

''Cyber criminals are continuing to evolve and adapt their techniques to exploit our growing reliance on mobiles. Enterprises need to adopt mobile security solutions which seamlessly protect devices from today's advanced cyber threats, and users should be careful to use only apps from official app stores to minimise their risk,'' Neatsun Ziv, VP Threat Prevention at Check Point Software, said.

In 2020, Check Point found a 15 per cent increase in banking Trojan activity, where users' mobile banking credentials are at risk of being stolen.

Check Point's Achilles research showed that at least 40 per cent of the world's mobile devices are inherently vulnerable to cyberattacks due to flaws in their chipsets, and need urgent patching.