Nowadays mobile devices are becoming increasingly ubiquitous. They provide outsized range of applications for all types of users – common users, highly tech savy users, business users, etc. Mobile devices allow users to store and access all their private information in one single device. This information includes - contact numbers, messages, mails, passwords, bank account details, direct access to all e-commerce website etc. And we all know today all applications run better and with ease on mobiles than it used to run on computers therefore everybody prefer mobile phone over desktop for all most all applications like web browsing, social networking, online banking, online shopping etc. Now with the increasing use of security critical applications on mobile phones there is an increasing risk of Malware attacks.

Malware is a code that can be inserted, altered or deleted from an application in order to intentionally harm the intended function of the device. Figure below shows the process of how malware spread and infect Mobile users.

In order to protect mobile users from attackers, detection of malware is important. Detection is based upon the behavior of malware. Two basic techniques that are used to detect malware behavior are:

Signature Based Detection (Misuse-based): This technique matches the data under inspection with characterization of predefined patterns or signatures. Signatures may be a binary file or strings execution stack. They need a repository, similar to some massive amount of data which demands some storage.

Anomaly Based Detection: This technique puts-in its skill set on program under assessment to know its maliciousness. The skill set contains a set of valid or normal behaviour. To check the behaviour of program under inspection, some set of rules or specifications are defined on which behaviour depends. Malicious programs are the one violating specifications.

The detection techniques are used in anti-malware applications to detect malwares. While anti-malware applications prevent devices from malware attacks, there are some precautionary steps that can be taken to better protect mobile devices from encountering malwares. Uses of legitimate app stores for downloading applications, not downloading fake and pirated applications are some of these steps.

By - Ashima Malhotra – Asst. Prof. CSE, Chitkara University H.P.

References:

1. Schmidt, A.D., “Detection of Smartphone Malware,” Diss. Berlin Institute of Technology, 2011.
2. Felt, A.P., Finifter, M., Chin, E., Hanna, S. and Wagner, D., “A survey of mobile malware in the wild,” In Proceedings of the 1st ACM workshop on Security and privacy in smartphones and mobile devices, pp: 3-14, October 2011.
3. https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2016/06/latest-android-overlay-malware-spreading-in-europe.html
4. http://www.digitalinnovationgazette.com/mobile/mobile_big_data