Smartphones Account for Most ‘Malware Activity’ in Mobile Space, Says Nokia Report

Smartphones pulled ahead of Windows-based laptops, reaching 60 percent of the “malware activity observed in the mobile space” in 2015's second half, said Nokia’s Threat Intelligence Lab Tuesday in a report. It cited an increase in iOS-based malware, the “growing sophistication” of Android malware and the rising threat of mobile ransomware. Ransomware is malware that holds a device hostage by encrypting data and then locking it, which can be reversed only by paying the attacker a ransom fee via a prepaid cash voucher or with bitcoins, it said.