Android Operating System has its legion of fans due to its open architecture, but this also makes the OS more prone to malware attacks.
According to Juniper Global Threat Center, the threat is actually increasing at exponential rate, thanks to the growing popularity of the mobile OS. The report claims that the malware attacks increased 110 percent in October on month over month basis. November has already witnessed 110 percent increase.
Juniper report suggests that the increase in mainly due to the lax authentication policies of the operating system. There are very few checks before an application is made live in the ecosystem. The report also claims that iOS devices are less prone to such attacks, since Apple has stringent process of vetting out suspicious apps. The report goes on to state, "Android's open applications store model, which lacks code signing and an application review process that Apple requires, makes it easy for attackers to distribute their malware.”
Juniper is not the first firm to draw attention to Android's potential vulnerability. Earlier, McAfee had also claimed that Android is fast becoming very popular with the hacking community and hence is very susceptible to malware attacks. The recent report states that Android malware threat has increased 472 percent since June, 2011. So, seems like it is a tradeoff between the perceived flexibility of Android and ironclad iOS. Would you be ready to sacrifice the ability to tinker your OS in favor of more secure but rigid iOS?