Lookout Threat Lab Researchers Say iOS is More Vulnerable to Phishing Than Android

January 6, 2025 | 09:21 am

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Lookout Threat Lab researchers report that iOS devices were more vulnerable to phishing threats than Android during the third quarter of 2024. This analysis was obtained from Lookout Security Cloud's AI-powered mobile data set covering more than 220 million devices, 360 million apps, and billions of web items.

Reported from its official page, Lookout Security Cloud has identified 473 million phishing and malicious sites since 2019. In addition, Lookout Security Cloud uses AI to analyze data and identify malware, phishing attacks, and other sophisticated network-based threats.

"Lookout Threat Lab researchers noted some very concerning findings, including a 17 percent increase in credential theft and enterprise-focused phishing attempts since last quarter, a 32 percent increase in the number of malicious app detections, and an interesting trend where iOS devices are more vulnerable to phishing and web content threats than Android," the company said.

Researchers at Lookout Threat also revealed two important mobile surveillance device families that they have been tracking for some time now. Both families are operated by advanced persistent threat (APT) groups based in China and Russia.

"We identified global trends that help inform security teams across every industry and geography on how to protect data from mobile threats, where mobile vulnerabilities pose a risk, and integrate mobile device telemetry into their enterprise endpoint security strategy through SIEM, SOAR, or XDR integration," the company said.

The report states that 19 percent of enterprise iOS devices were hit by at least one mobile phishing attack in each of the first three quarters of 2024. Meanwhile, the threat for Android was lower at 10.9 percent.

Lookout states that every mobile operating system (OS) and application has vulnerabilities in its code just like any other software. Even when developers release patches, there is a window of opportunity between when a vulnerability is discovered and when the patch is released that allows attackers to exploit a compromised device. Additionally, there are still users who do not always install updates immediately when they are released.

Quoted from the Indian Express, the report also shows that 31.1 percent of these attacks were successful because of outdated iOS versions. Meanwhile, 12.3 percent of attacks were caused by outdated Android Security Patch Levels (ASPL).

"Outdated operating system (OS) versions, especially on iOS devices, can leave devices and their data vulnerable to known and unknown exploits," Lookout explained.

Phishing is an action taken by someone in an attack to trick other users into making mistakes. Phishing can be done via text messages, social media, or telephone. Users do not know that these things can bring viruses or other malicious actions to their devices.

Phishing is done to describe attacks that come via email. This is because this action can reach millions of users directly and hide among a large number of other benign emails. Attacks can install malware, sabotage systems, or steal intellectual property and money from users. In fact, phishing in the form of emails can attack a large organization or company.

Rachel Farahdiba Regar contributed to the writing of this article.

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