A new study claims that hackers have moved their attention away from PCs and web sites to new targets: mobile devices, smartphones and tablets. This intrusion of personal information moved to mobile devices because of the explosive growth these unique electronics have garnered in the past couple of years, according to a new report from Juniper Networks.
People are gravitating more and more to these handheld devices because these are becoming the daily driver for how folks conduct their business, including banking and shopping). In Juniper’s report, malware almost tripled with nearly 28,500 samples compared to 11,000 in 2010. That’s a huge spike in attacks. Moreover, Android captured 46 percent of these malicious attacks.
The research company said Apple is somewhat in the clear because the iPhone maker doesn’t provide developers with the information they need to create security screening programs that run on the phone itself. This may be true but it does have its issues when it comes to allowing popular third-party apps, like Path, access to users’ address books without permission.
The reality is, we have to be more careful with what kind of apps we download — please, read permissions folks! There’s malware that could track a phone’s location, collect financial information and other stuff you’d hate to get in the hands of some weirdo you don’t even know. Moral of the story: be safe by being smart.
[via AllThingsD, pic]