Majority of Mobile threats targets Android devices.
Major Ransomware types in Mobile Devices
Mobile Ransomware Infection Vector
- Third-party app store
- The most common infection vector is downloading ransomware-infected apps from third party app stores.
- No ransomware-infected app has been found in the official Google Play and Apple App store yet.
- Social Network
- Text messages with malicious links may trigger users to open the link and download a Ransomware unknowingly.
Trend Micro solutions for Ransomware in Mobile
Trend Micro’s Mobile Protection products contain key technologies to protect against ransomware.
MARS is a cloud-based technology that automatically identifies mobile threats based on app behaviour. Any newly installed application will be scanned by MARS to check if it is a Ransomware. MARS can also perform the following:
- Crawls and collects a huge number of Android and iOS apps from various markets
- Identifies existing and brand new mobile malware
- Identifies apps that may abuse privacy and device resources
- App repack and vulnerability assessment
WRS and URL Filtering are services that checks the URLs being accessed and blocks those that are unsafe. These services also do the following:
- URL Categorizations grant URL Category type to each URL, identifying Ransomware
- Block malicious URL before virus patterns release
- URL Reputation Scoring grants WRS Score to each URL
- Stop users from visiting or downloading from malicious URLs
Unlocking a device from a Screen Locker
The device can be unlocked by booting it to safe mode, then removing the application that locks the device. For additional information, check this article: Removing lock-screen type ransomware using Safe Mode on Android .