Cisco 2013 Annual Security Report data
Cisco Report

Players should use trusted online and mobile casinos but still avoid clicking on ads.

The conclusion to be drawn from the Cisco 2013 Annual Security Report is that Android mobile gambling is less safe than it was a year ago, but still one of the safest ways to get online.

That is because, although the number of Android malware encounters (i.e. running into harmful, exploitative software while using such mobile devices) grew by a horrific 2,577% in 2012, they still account for a mere 0.5% of online malware prevalence.

Consequently, Android casinos (as well as other platforms) are still much more secure than going online from a home PC – which is not among the riskiest activities, either.

One of the reasons behind the low number of overall malware presence on Android mobiles is that a large number of malwares coming through PCs use third-party advertising appearing on legitimate sites as a vehicle for delivering harmful content. While this kind of placement is possible on portable devices, the practice is much less widespread due to its more limited feasibility on these platforms.

Nevertheless, even playing online blackjack from a home computer is much safer than visiting certain “business and industry sites — which include everything from corporate sites to human resources to freight services,” according to Cisco, as this latter category ranked third among the types of sites most likely to deliver malware to the unsuspecting visitor.

The top two categories were “Dynamic Content and CDN” and “Advertisements”.

Although an increasingly interconnected world, with a wide range of devices to access online content anytime, anywhere, creates more security issues, three common sense rules help to protect the players just the same as before.

  1. If in doubt, don’t click on it. This applies to advertising and links embedded on websites, sent through e-mails or popping up while surfing the net.
  2. Play on trusted casinos sites or recommendations from trusted sources. Nevertheless, don’t assume that third party advertising on these sites is safe to click on.
  3. Install reliable protection. Better safe than sorry.