The mobile threat landscape varies significantly by geography. Not only does the aggregate likelihood of encountering a threat change as you move from North America to Europe to Asia, but the specific prevalence of mobile threats varies across a broad spectrum that ranges from irritating to dangerous. Lookout took a deep dive into data from the Lookout Platform to review the year in mobile threats to date, from January to May 2013.

1. MOBILE THREATS AROUND THE WORLD
The mobile threat landscape varies significantly by geography. Not only does the aggregate
likelihood of encountering a threat change as you move from North America to Europe to
Asia, but the specific prevalence of mobile threats varies across a broad spectrum that ranges
from irritating to dangerous. Lookout took a deep dive into data from the Lookout Platform to
review the year in malware to date, from January to May 2013.
Adware dominates detections in all
countries, due to a lack of clear
guidelines for what is acceptable for
mobile advertising and higher payouts
for unscrupulous advertising methods.
A D W A R E
C H A R G E W A R E
S P Y W A R E
S U R V E I L L A N C E
T R O J A N
U S
1.66%
D E
2.37%
J P
0.78%
U K
2.16%
I N
5.49%
LIKELIHOOD
Chargeware is common in the
United Kingdom, a region that
several pornographic premium
SMS campaigns target.
This is a comparison of percentage
of likelihood per country and type
of mobile threat.
GLOBAL LIKELIHOOD BY TYPE OF THREAT
Probability of a user encountering at least one threat of the given type in a 7 day period.
We limited this deep dive to a specific set of countries across a range of global geographies,
including the US, UK, Germany, Japan and India.
Germany has a higher relative preva-
lence of Trojans than the other coun-
tries on our list; several premium
SMS families are most prevalent in
this region.
Surveillanceware is popular in the
US as it has found a quasi-legal
position in the market. This lower
barrier to entry allows developers
to target a wide audience.
Japan has a relatively small
number of threats compared to
other countries, likely because
premium SMS does not exist
in Japan.
India has a very high incidence
of Adware; several adware vari-
ants specifically target gaming
apps popular in this region.
A D W A R E
LIKELIHOOD
1.60%
Software that collects
sensitive information
about a person or device
through an ad platform.
C H A R G E W A R E
LIKELIHOOD
0.22%
Application that charges
fees without making the
charge clear to the user.
S P Y W A R E
LIKELIHOOD
0.10%
Program that gathers
data from a large group
of users and then trans-
mits sensitive data about
them without their knowl-
edge or consent.
S U R V E I L L A N C E
LIKELIHOOD
0.16%
Program that targets spe-
cific individuals or organi-
zations and is designed
to capture and transmit
sensitive user information
without their knowledge.
T R O J A N
LIKELIHOOD
0.53%
Program that appears
legit, but performs illicit
activity when it is run, or
allows someone to re-
motely take control of
the device.
1.20%
ADWARE
0.17%
CHARGEWARE
0.18%
SURVEILLANCE
0.78%
TROJAN
0.04%
SPYWARE
G E R M A N Y
2.37% threat likelihood
0.50%
ADWARE
0.01%
CHARGEWARE
0.01%
SURVEILLANCE
0.21%
TROJAN
0.05%
SPYWARE
J A P A N
0.78% threat likelihood 3.80%
ADWARE
0.49%
CHARGEWARE
0.24%
SURVEILLANCE
0.74%
TROJAN
0.22%
SPYWARE
I N D I A
5.49% threat likelihood
1 .00%
ADWARE
0.38%
CHARGEWARE
0.13%
SURVEILLANCE
0.55%
TROJAN
0.10%
SPYWARE
U N I T E D K I N G D O M
2.16% threat likelihood
0.90%
ADWARE
0.07%
CHARGEWARE 0.24%
SURVEILLANCE
0.24%
TROJAN
0.10%
SPYWARE
U N I T E D S T A T E S
1.66% threat likelihood