Smartphone viruses at all-time high last year

Mobile phone viruses were at an all-time high last year, according to a report from McAfee.

The number of pieces of new mobile malware in 2010 increased by 46 percent compared with 2009, the McAfee Threats Report: Fourth Quarter 2010 reveals.

A positive from the report, however, was that spam accounted for 80 percent of total email traffic in Q4 2010 – the lowest point since the first quarter of 2007.

"Our Q4 Threats Report shows that cybercriminals are keeping tabs on what's popular, and what will have the biggest impact from the smallest effort," said Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs.

"In the past few quarters, malware trends have been very similar in different geographies, but in the last quarter we've seen a significant shift in various regions, showing that cybercriminals are tapped in to trends worldwide. McAfee Labs also sees the direct correlation between device popularity and cybercriminal activity, a trend we expect to surge in 2011."

Threats to mobile platforms are not new. However, as more consumers use mobile devices and tablets in their daily lives and at work, cybercriminals have taken note. During the last several years, McAfee Labs has seen a steady growth in the number of threats to mobile devices.

Yesterday, McAfee also announced revenue of $2.1bn for 2010, an increase of 7 per cent on 2009.