The Tencent Mobile Security Report of 2013 has been issued by Tencent Mobile Security Labs. It indicates that the number of mobile virus packages is 4.5 times that of 2012, while the number of spam messages reported by Tencent Cellphone Housekeeper users has reached 739 million, 2.4 times that of 2012. The fact that the numbers of mobile virus and spam messages have reached new record highs is a cause for concern.

Mobile payment virus surges

In 2013, Tencent Cellphone Housekeeper sought out and eliminateed two high-risk mobile banking and payment viruses – Locke Worm and Bank Bandit. Locke Worm can embed malicious code into bank apps through secondary packaging. More than 60 million users have been infected with Bank Bandit which has embedded itself into well-known apps and mobile games. The virus can spy on users' texts and call records, shield replies and even delete all their texts. Furthermore, it is able to obtain accounts and passwords from shopping and bank apps installed in the mobile and then steal money.

According to the report, the number of short spam messages reported by Tencent Cellphone Housekeeper users reached 739 million in 2013, with advertising messages accounting for 92.6%, illegal messages 3.3%, fraud messages 2.9%, and other messages 1.2%. The annual growth rate of fraud messages in 2013 was 21.5%.

According to a survey conducted by the Internet Society of China, 67.8% of respondents have received fraud messages indicating they have won a prize, while 45% have received messages about bank deductions. The Shenzhen Anti-Information Fraud Reporting Center has prevented 7687 potential victims from being defrauded of more than 100 million yuan (about 16.51 million USD). An anti-information fraud union has been created through a joint initiative by Tencent Computer Housekeeper, Tencent Cellphone Housekeeper and Shenzhen Anti-Information Fraud Reporting Hotline, designed to confront mobile security issues through releasing data bases including malicious websites.

The article is edited and translated from《腾讯2013手机安全年报显示 手机支付类病毒猛增》, source: People's Daily, author: Yu Jianbin.