65 million: the number of times we’ve blocked mobile threats in 2016. By December 2016, the total number of unique samples of malicious Android apps we’ve collected and analyzed hit the 19.2 million mark—a huge leap from the 10.7 million samples collected in 2015.

Indeed, the ubiquity of mobile devices among individual users and organizations, along with advances in technologies that power them, reflect the exponential proliferation, increasing complexity and expanding capabilities of mobile threats.

While the routines and infection chain of mobile threats are familiar territory, 2016 brought threats with increased diversity, scale, and scope to the mobile landscape. More enterprises felt the brunt of mobile malware as BYOD and company-owned devices become more commonplace, while ransomware became rampant as the mobile user base continued to become a viable target for cybercriminals. More vulnerabilities were also discovered and disclosed, enabling bad guys to broaden their attack vectors, fine-tune their malware, increase their distribution methods, and in particular, invade iOS’s walled garden.