Chinese Internet security company Qihoo 360 has published a report covering Chinese mobile phone security for the first half of 2011, stating that from January to June 2011, about 2,559 new mobile viruses and malware were found in China, affecting 13.24 million mobile phone users.

The Android and Symbian operating systems were the most affected mobile platforms. Major damages caused by these malware were malicious charges and user privacy thefts.

The report said that compared with 2010, the numbers of mobile trojans and the number of users affected both increased by several times. Statistics provided by 360's mobile phone cloud security center showed that with the continuous growth of Android users, the number of Android trojans is also exploding. During the first half of 2011, 968 new malware and trojans targeting this platform were found in China, affecting 1.18 million users.

However, over 60% of mobile trojans preferred the old smartphone operating system Symbian — 1,591 new malware and trojans were found on the system, affecting 12.06 million users.

The report also pointed out that the intentions of Chinese mobile trojans are transferring from system damage to malicious charges and user privacy thefts. Some malware can spy on the short messages and communications of users; and some are implanted in the firmware of smuggled mobile phones, which are hard to be deleted manually.