It’s been many years now, about a decade, where security researchers have been predicting a forthcoming mobile malware apocalypse bearing down on us. Obviously, that has not materialized. There are mobile threats out there, have been for about a decade, but it never reached the point where it was common outside certain local pockets. Most of this seems to be due to the fragmentation in the market – there’s no one phone or even OS which is common enough to offer malware writers the bang-for-buck that they get with Windows.
The popularity of iPhone certainly makes it a more enticing target, but as yet the malware has focused mostly on “jail-broken” iPhones, which are arguably security-compromised to begin with.
Mikko Hypponen discusses the threat level of mobile malware with Technology Review in a very honest and even-handed way, not succumbing to the usual rants about impending doom. Though the last sentence does discuss possible doom-situations, this is still realistic and not melodramatic.
I do not believe I have seen this depicted in such a way before. You actually have cleared this up for me. Thank you!