Smartphone owners represent new IT security threats Smartphones shipped worldwide have surpassed personal computer shipments for the first time, according to International Data Corporation (IDC) statistics for the last business quarter. Many of those phones will be used for much more than just making calls. That’s more people using smartphones to visit websites, manage social media postings, send and receive e-mail and even access important business documents. That’s also more people risking theft of personal files, identities and financial information simply because they do little to protect their smartphones, said Dan Bowers, a College of Western Idaho computer security instructor with 30 years of experience in the information technology industry. “Your smartphone is a computer, and you are the weakest link in its security,” Bowers said during a presentation in the ITD Headquarters Auditorium Tuesday. “We connect (smartphones) to many different networks,” he explained to a full house of ITD employees and a few of his CWI students. If you connect to a home network and then to an office network with a compromised phone, “It’s like being sick and then bringing that illness to the office,” he said. Software scripts, the Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) applications that allow texting and sending photographs also are routes that can lead to smartphone security breaches. Other security threats can involve 3G and 4G networks, Bluetooth, wireless Internet connections, anything USB or infrared based and synchronizing with other networks. Once compromised, a smartphone can allow hackers access to e-mail and voice mail, the ability to steal valuable information such as contacts or insert malware to spread virus infections, use the smartphone’s Internet history to access bank account information and even spy on a smartphone owner by tracking the phone’s location or activating the phone’s camera remotely. Bowers offered several tips for improving smartphone security:
“Hackers have a high interest in stealing your identity” Bowers explained. “Hacking is for profit, and the profits have overtaken those of the drug trade worldwide. Published 4-8-2011 |