The various aspects include systems and methods for enabling mobile computing devices to recognize when they are at risk of experiencing malicious behavior in the near future given a current configuration. Thus, the various aspects enable mobile computing devices to anticipate malicious behaviors before a malicious behavior begins rather than after the malicious behavior has begun. In the various aspects, a network server may receive behavior vector information from multiple mobile computing devices and apply pattern recognition techniques to the received behavior vector information to identify malicious configurations and pathway configurations that may lead to identified malicious configurations. The network server may inform mobile computing devices of identified malicious configurations and the corresponding pathway configurations, thereby enabling mobile computing devices to anticipate and prevent malicious behavior from beginning by recognizing when they have entered a pathway configuration leading to malicious behavior.