Security threats to the fast-growing mobile enterprise are on the rise, jumping exponentially in 2012 from 2011, according to the latest quarterly report from McAfee. The total number of mobile malware samples in the company’s database stands at about 13,000 so far this year; 2011 alone saw less than 2,000.

The latest threats:

• The emergence of mobile “drive-by downloads“ as a growing method of attack, particularly against Android devices.
• The rising use of Twitter as a mode of controlling mobile “botnets.”
• A rise in mobile “ransomware,” which is able to hold certain data “hostage” and demand a credit card payment in return for releasing it.

Android devices continue to account for more than 75 percent of mobile malware targets, though there is a steady rise in malware targeting Apple devices. 

“Malware writers leverage the expertise they honed during the years of writing malware for other platforms,” according to the report. “Mobile malware is certainly not proof-of-concept or early code. It is fully functional and mature, and mobile malware writers know what they are looking for: consumer and business data.”

What does this mean for companies? The bottom line is that while there are lots of email “phishing” campaigns that are pretty easy to spot, hackers can very cleverly disguise malware that can cause businesses one hell of a headache. This makes it ever more important to have a mobile device recovery plan and BYOD policies in place. 

More: How to Safeguard Your Mobile Devices Against Security Breaches and Outages.

Image used under Creative Commons by Flickr user greyweed.