A lack of sufficient security controls has yielded a perhaps expected but widespread trend: malware.

Fifty-nine percent of Ponemon’s respondents said they’ve seen a jump in malware infections over the past 12 months due, specifically, to insecure mobile devices including laptops, smartphones, and tablets. And a pretty hefty jump, at that. Thirty-one percent of those who have noticed a spike in malware cases said the increase was by more than 50 percent.

According to a separate study released by McAfee in December, Google’s Android OS is most at risk. The OS had a malware volume of 63 percent during the second quarter of last year, with Java ME next with 20 percent, and Symbian after that with 7 percent. RIM’s BlackBerry OS was fairly low risk with 6 percent, but Apple’s iOS was the real winner, apparently, by not even making the risk-maker list.