Porn sites three times more infectious to mobile users

Mobile users infrequently visit porn sites but are nearly three times as likely to contract an infection than other attack vectors, security firm Blue Coat says.

In Blue Coat's 2013 Mobile Malware Report, only 3.8 percent of the firm's 75 million user sample was detected visiting porn sites.

More than 20 percent of the time, however, malicious sites visited these customers turned out to be porn sites. 

This is not the case on traditional computers, however. Cisco's 2013 Annual Security Report, released last month, found that once-common malware nesting grounds on PCs – like pornography, pharmaceutical and gambling sites – are now less likely to infect users than legitimate sites and online advertisements.

Online ads, for example, were 182 times more likely to deliver content to users than porn sites, the report found.

Blue Coat Systems senior product marketing director Sasi Murthy told SC that malicious mobile sites are likely to distribute porn

“I think [attackers] are re-employing tactics that worked in the past to explore what is effective here,” Murthy said of mobile targets.

“In the meantime, we can expect to see this year a more weaponised approach, like exploit kits, which we haven't yet seen available much for mobile devices.”

This article originally appeared at scmagazineus.com