108 Chapter5·TaxonomyofMobileMalware Distribution Malware has always attempted to attack as many vulnerable systems as possible. In the history of malware, some of the most malicious were able to spread to thousands if not millions of computers worldwide, causing enormous damage, and costing millions (in some cases, billions) of dollars. In the era of MM, the capacity to distribute amongst mobile devices grows exponentially and the threat of potential damage grows in parallel. In today's world, for every person with a desktop or laptop there are a hundred others with a cell phone, a PDA, or a portable music player. All of these are equipped with the infrastructure necessary to be a target of an MM when it commences distribution to attack other potential victims. The result of today's use of mobile devices in every hand is a much bigger pool of potential victims, who could become part of a catastrophic MM attack causing damages in the billions (maybe hundreds of billions) of dollars worldwide. How big can an MM attack be based on distribution? Consider downtown in any urban city around the world. It's 8 a.m.... People are going to work and are roaming about with their mobile devices in hand. A bad actor arises from the masses, retrieves a mobile device and presses Enter. An MM using privately discovered zero-day vulnerability is released and starts scanning for potential victims via Wi-Fi. In a matter of seconds 98 percent of the mobile devices in a three-mile radius become totally inoperable. Twenty minutes later, news