Cyber attacks target smartphones
Security experts have warned for years that our smartphones are due for a major cyberattack. Like PCs back in the
early days -- the 1990s -- mobile phones are largely unprotected by
antivirus software, and they're a treasure trove of valuable
information.
So why hasn't the smartphone Armageddon happened yet?
A significant attack on Smartphones is
predicted every year, and it hasn't happened yet. But that isn't
stopping major security firms from saying this will be the year that
phones will finally emerge as a major target for cybercriminals.
There
are many reasons why
smartphones are vulnerable. For one, they run most of the
same software that smartphone users also use on their computers.
Smartphones also have many additional capabilities that hackers can
exploit. They can connect to other potentially vulnerable devices
using Bluetooth and send and receive text messages, for example.
Basic economics is one reason. Cyberthieves are making so much money attacking
Windows PCs that
there hasn't been much incentive to change tactics. With
smart phones proliferating in the U.S., cybercriminals are coming
out of the woodwork looking
for sensitive information on sophisticated mobile phones packed with
special apps and Web access.
One single, recent hack that Verizon (VZ, Fortune
500)investigated
-- debit card numbers stolen from merchants through secretly
installed keyloggers --resulted
in a loss of $20 million.
at: none; Criminal activity ranges from merely annoying -- freezing or slowing
phone functions -- to more serious attacks, which include retrieving
or erasing phone numbers and text messages stored in phone memories
and relaying viruses from phones to their owners’ company computer
networks. Viruses that can quickly drain battery life are also on
the loose. Here are the scary
numbers: Cyberattacks on mobile phones rose by a factor of six this
year, according to
Intel (INTC, Fortune
500) subsidiary
McAfee. Four in 10 mobile users will click an unsafe link on a
smartphone this year, according to
Lookout
Security. Yet less than a fifth of
the devices run any antivirus software, according to security
research organization
SANS.
An
RSA
study shows
we're much more likely to click on phishing attacks on mobile
devices than we are on PCs. Smartphones have become personal
computers that travel around with us at all times. Mobile attacks
are difficult, and the smartphone space may never be as homogeneous
as the PC market, but crooks follow the cash. As smartphones become
our primary devices, the cybercriminals' motivation for targeting
them grows. All it will take is
one
slip up by
Apple or Google -CNN article

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Smart Phone
Security at Workplace.