Problem overview

Mobile malware comes in many forms and is distributed in several ways. Clever social engineering schemes are created to get users to download malware onto their devices, most often through a phishing email, SMS text message, or phony app. While Apple iOS is a target, mobile malware predominantly impacts Android devices. Once infected, mobile malware is capable of hijacking the operating system and taking over a user’s device.

Detecting malware on mobile devices has relied heavily on traditional anti-virus (AV) scanning technologies, which look for the name of the suspicious package and regularly monitor apps and their hashes for the malware. However, as has been witnessed in the online channel for years, AV detection comes with limitations, as malware is designed to change its files frequently in order to evade detection.

Behavioral biometric intelligence looks at swipe events, touch areas, device movement, navigation patterns, and other behavioral cues to detect the presence of malware. When compared to historical genuine sessions, behavioral data provides strong indicators to detect a significant number of mobile malware cases.