mobileu.co.uk

Smartphone users warned of virus threats

People are being warned to be wary of what information they store on their mobile phones, as hackers are developing more and more sophisticated ways of stealing information from smartphones.

Recent research by security firm Juniper Networks showed that seven out of ten people store sensitive information such as medical and bank details on their mobile phone without any security.

Despite this figure, four out of five respondents claimed that security was a top priority for them when they were considering buying or using a smartphone.

Juniper executive vice president, Mark Bauhaus, said people were becoming blinded by technology, so much so that they were not seeing the threats also being created.

"Mobile phones represent the fastest adopted technology in the history of mankind – faster than video camcorders or the TV," he said. "I think the issue of security is hitting us quite quickly."

He warned, "As we grow the number of devices, so the bad guys increase and the sophistication of attacks also grow."

He said that in the last year there had been a 250 per cent jump in the number of threats in the mobile space from malware to viruses, a jump that had prompted all the major security software vendors to now offer a smartphone software package.

In its research – which surveyed 6,000 participants in 16 countries – Juniper found that 61 per cent of all reported smartphone infections were spyware, capable of monitoring communication from the device.