Kaspersky: Cybercriminals to go after Android

Mobile malware is a real threat, but it's still a drop in the ocean compared to the threat facing PCs.

Speaking to The Wall Street Journal ahead of next week's Mobile World Congress, Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder of Kapersky Lab, said that mobile malware was real, but that it was still a 'thousand times less than computer malware.'

'The situation is not so dangerous or big compared to computer malware,' he said. 'There are millions of threats every month compared to only hundreds or maybe thousands with phones, so it's a thousand times less than with computers. But it is growing very quickly, and they are reality.'

Kaspersky sees the future of cybercrime as falling into two categories. First, the consumer attacks, which he sees as increasingly being focused on Android based smartphones and tablets, and enterprise attacks will be more traditional computer attacks.

These statements come a day after the release of a report that claimed that Android malware had increased by a massive 3,325 percent during 2011.

But who are these cybercriminals? 'They are geeks,' he said. 'They are organized, they trade with each other. It is a business. But it is not the Mafia. As far as I know there is no connection between the two.'

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Image credit: Kaspersky Lab