Admit it. You watch porn. Everybody does. But if you watch those XXX videos on your Android smartphone, you may want to avoid doing that now. The operating system is not exactly known for its advanced security features and now a study by Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab has shown why you should shy away from using an Android device for the purpose.
In their study, Kaspersky Lab researchers found out that in 2017, at least 1.2 million users encountered malware while watching adult content at least once on their Android devices. This is about a quarter of the 4.9 million Android users who encountered some form of malware hidden in the adult content.
What did they find?
The researchers made some startling discoveries during their research. 27 pieces of porn-related malware from 3 families were seen more than 3,00,000 times on desktop. But these numbers don’t match up when accounted for the attacks in case of the mobile platform.
They discovered 23 families of malware that heavily rely on porn as a lure on the mobile platform. The researchers said that when it came to malware that uses adult-content to lure users into installing malicious programs “the Android threat landscape is much more vivid than that of the desktop.”
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Talking about the distribution of malware on mobile phones, researchers said that Android trojans actively use porn themes, which are usually distributed from fake porn sites, that users are redirected to through advertising on genuine sites.
They said during their research, they spotted several cases where clicker Trojans, which not only eat mobile data and drain but also steal device information, had been downloaded from porn websites. Apart from this, they also spotted cases where ransomware used fake porn apps to lure users. Here’s what the blog mentioned:
‘The scariest thing about mobile ransomware is that these Trojans change (or set) the device PIN code to random, so even if the user can delete the Trojan, the phone will remain locked.’
How do I protect myself from such attacks?
The blog listed several measures that users can take to safeguard themselves from such attacks:
- Only use trusted websites to view adult content.
- Do not install Android apps from unknown sources.
- Use strong internet security solution.
Happy surfing!
