Smartphones have made it a whole lot easier for hackers to exploit and steal personal information, without the user even knowing their smartphone has been compromised.
Charlie Miller, the principal analyst for software security at Independent Security Evaluators, provided an overview of the past, present, and future trends around smartphone security. “Mobile phones are no longer just phones anymore. They have evolved into small computers that have the capability to store lots of personal and corporate information.”
Unlike laptops, smartphones have become an always-on, always-connected mobile device. “Users rely a lot on the mobile phone vendors to do the right thing when they design the smartphone. But the truth is there is not much a user can do to protect their mobile phone.”
Just about any personal information can be extracted from a user's smartphone, including contacts, phone numbers, voicemails, SMS messages, photographs, videos, Web credentials, passwords as well as cookies, which enable a criminal to view online banking details.
“It's easier to hack into a smartphone than to break into a PC or laptop,” Miller noted. “Smartphones float outside of corporate firewalls, away from the protection of network security systems and proxies. And most smartphones don't have anti-virus software built into them or have their operating systems updated frequently.”
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