Characterization of Android Malwares and their families

Nowadays, smartphones have made our lives easier and have become essential gadgets for us. Apart from calling, mobiles are used for various purposes, such as banking, chatting, data storage, connecting to the internet and running apps which make life easier. Therefore, attackers are developing new methods or malware to steal smartphone data. Primarily, the study outlines various types of Android malware families, the evolution of Android malware and its effects on detection techniques over time. We report malware timelines and Android app datasets with their source web links. Data is collected from various recent studies and reported. In this study, we have reported 384 Android malware families and their year of discovery, i.e., from 2001 to 2020. According to the malfunctions they perform on the device, we categorized the families into 11 types. Information about datasets which is divided into three categories, along with their source links is presented. The categorization and timeline of malware will make it easy for researchers to focus on upcoming trends according to the malware category and activities they perform. Various open issues and future challenges are also addressed for future researchers.