In its advisory it said that the huge growth in the number of Android applications was likely to make the phones tempting targets for criminals. "We can expect to see a corresponding rise in the amount of malware targeting that platform," said Denis Maslennikov, mobile research group manager at the firm. Simeon Coney, spokesman for mobile security firm AdaptiveMobile said booby-trapped applications that run up big bills via premium rate numbers were very common on other platforms such as Symbian.
Symbian is the most popular smartphone operating system, commonly used on handsets built by Nokia and Sony Ericsson.
"There are a significant number of Java based mobile viruses that do exactly the same malicious activity of sending out premium rate (i.e. reverse charge) SMS," he said.
Like other mobile application stores, Google has a system in place that can revoke malicious applications and stop them running on handsets.
"Our application permissions model protects against this type of threat," said a spokesperson for Google. "When installing an application, users see a screen that explains clearly what information and system resources the application has permission to access, such as a user's phone number or sending an SMS.
"Users must explicitly approve this access in order to continue with the installation, and they may uninstall applications at any time. The spokesperson said the firm advises users to "only install apps they trust".
"In particular, users should exercise caution when installing applications outside of Android Market." (BBC)