Android nowadays is on everyone’s radar for both good and bad reasons. Not only is the Android platform growing rapidly, but also malware on the platform is growing explosively. Just few weeks back, Google removed 45 applications from their Android Market because these applications had malware sending personal data from user devices. And now Nikolay Grebennikov, chief technology officer for Kaspersky Lab, a security firm says that their company has identified 70 different types of malware in March aimed at Android, up from just two in September last year.

“Applications loaded with malicious software are infiltrating the Google operating system at a faster rate than hackers did with personal computers at the same stage in PC development”, said Nikolay. “The growth rate in malware within Android is huge, in the future there will definitively be more.”
Google’s engineer, Rich Cannings posted “We are adding a number of measures to help prevent additional malicious applications using similar exploits from being distributed through Android Market.”

But Nikolay believes that Google is fighting a losing battle and very soon Android smartphones will need additional security software, like PCs do now. Kaspersky Lab will start offering security software for Android in the third quarter of this year.

There is no doubt Google Android is facing more malware problems that other platforms like Apple’s iOS. But we think that the above news is more of an advertisement for Kaspersky Lab, than an actual threat to Android smartphones. If users are careful and Google pays more attention to Android Market (rather than just keep calling it open) these issues can be minimized.
[Via SF Gate]