ANDROID MALWARE. Malware distribution by Android version. Courtesy of Kaspersky

MANILA, Philippines - Kaspersky has released a report detailing cybersecurity threat statistics for the third quarter of 2012. Titled “IT Threat Evolution: Q3 2012,” the report outlines the general trends for cybersecurity issues on mobile devices, online, and across the world.

Regarding attacks on the Android OS, the report notes Android 2.3.6 “Gingerbread” and Android 4.0.4 “Ice Cream Sandwich” as the most commonly attacked versions. Their prevalence in the segmented Android market is the result for the two being the most commonly attacked Android types.

In terms of security exploits, Java vulnerabilities were taken advantage of in 56% of all attacks. The on-demand installation of software updates for Java tended to extend the life of vulnerabilities. Java exploits’ ease of use in various Windows versions and for the creation of cross-platform exploits also added to the high numbers of Java vulnerabilities. Adobe reader exploits came in at 25%.

World statistics were also generated for the countries that were most seeded by malware, most likely to be infected from via the Internet, and most likely to be locally infected. The Philippines was rated as having a high level of local infection at 44.3%.

Microsoft gained notice due to this Kaspersky report, as its products were no longer cited as among the top 10 products with vulnerabilities. – Rappler.com