The Q1 2011 report suggests this surge of mobile malware could be down to the fact that, for the first time ever, sales of smartphones have exceeded sales of PCs. On top of this, Panda notes that Android is now becoming the dominant platform of mobile computing and is likely to win the tablet market shortly.
Additionally, says the report, there is increasing concern about cell phone security, and research studies and proof-of concepts reporting security problems have multiplied over the last few months.
Delving into the report reveals that Panda's research team have been observing cybercriminals trying out a number of new techniques on smartphone users, whilst at the same time tapping proven attach strategies such as smartphone malware that generate premium rate text messages.
According to the report, a group of Russian cybercriminals took advantage of Valentines Day during February to distribute an application that supposedly let users send romantic photos to their partners via picture messaging.
"The application offered a number of images that users could send to their loved ones, but actually sent SMS text messages to a premium rate number without the owner knowing", says the report.
And almost in parallel with this, Panda said a new Android trojan entered the frame - Trj/ADRD.A - which stole personal information and sent it to the criminals.
The report goes on to say that, one of the most frequent recommendations to combat these threats is to avoid downloading applications from unofficial and questionable places.
"In this case [however], the trojan was distributed from Chinese Android app markets, (not from the official store) together with a series of games and wallpapers", says the report.
"Unlike the iPhone iOS, the Android OS lets you install applications from anywhere, an aspect cyber-crooks are beginning to exploit", adds the report.
Panda's analysis goes on to say that this is not the only difference between the two smartphone operating systems, as applications uploaded to the Android Market (the official store) "are not examined as scrupulously as Apple ones, which has already led to some nasty surprises."
"A few days later, another Android Trojan started to spread from China once again. This time, the apps had been repackaged with the malware, thus delivering a nasty present", notes the report.
"This trojan was designed to carry out a number of actions, from sending SMS text messages to visiting Web pages. It could also stop inbound SMS messages", the report adds.