McAfee Labs reveals Mobile app collusion threats on rise

In a security report released by Intel Security, their McAfee Labs threat report delving into the dynamics of Mobile app collusion has revealed how cyber criminals manipulate the apps to attack the smartphones of the users. McAfee has reported that more than 5056 versions of 21 apps can be used as an effective mode of attacking the phones.

The situation intensifies if the user does not tend to update the applications on time as the older versions of the app are more vulnerable to malicious attacks. As a result of mobile app collusion, McAfee has identified three different types of threats viz. Service misuse, Financial and Information threat.

Vice President of Intel’s Security McAfee Lab’s group, Vincent Weafer said, “It should not come as a surprise that adversaries have responded to mobile security efforts with new threats that attempt to hide in plain sight. Our goal is to make it increasingly harder for malicious apps to gain a foothold on our personal devices, developing smarter tools and techniques to detect colluding mobile apps”.

As the threat research division of Intel Corporation’s Intel Security group, McAfee Labs is one of the world’s leading sources for threat research, intelligence and cyber security.

The McAfee Lab teams specialize in collecting threat data from millions of web pages, different networks, files, and messages. This real-time threat data is then forwarded through cloud-based McAfee global threat intelligence. In addition, the labs also develop core threat detection technologies and methods.

Whereas Intel Security is focussed on developing proactive and proven security solutions that assist in protecting networks, systems and even mobile devices for professional and private use. Intel Security is trying to integrate the expertise of McAfee with its performance to render a quintessential security element helpful in protecting every computer system and mobile device.

About the author

Meenakshi Rawat

Having worked on Entertainment, Technology, and Business for four years, Meenakshi finds solace in technology, and more so in covering it. She loves to read novels, listen to music, and roam around places. You can reach Meenakshi at meenakshi@pc-tablet.com.