ESPOO, Finland—A new report finds that incidents of malware on smartphones increased 400% in 2016.
The finding supports what analysts have been stating over the past year--that crooks are increasing their focus on mobile devices.
According to Nokia, malware hit 1.35% of all mobile devices around the globe in October of 2016, marking the highest level since malware reports on smartphones started being collected in 2012, reported Investopedia
In the second half of last year, smartphones were the most-targeted devices, accounting for 85% of all infections on mobile devices, reported Nokia in its latest Threat Intelligence Report.
The report found Android-based smartphones and tablets were the main target of hackers, stated Investopedia.
“Apple Inc.'s iOS devices were also hit with attacks in 2016, with Nokia finding the attacks were mainly via spyphone surveillance software that can track users' calls, texts, social media interactions, searches on the web and GPS locations among other things,” Investopedia stated.
Nokia noted that there are also "major vulnerabilities" in the market of Internet of Things (IoT) devices.