Mobile devices now a prime target for hackers
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Rik Ferguson is someone you don't want to mess with.
The humorous IT security expert, who sports numerous tattoos and has a penchant for heavy metal music, can hack into your mobile phone with a single SMS.
He can then remotely listen to your calls, read text messages and even access the password to your online bank account.
“It’s creepy, isn’t it?” said Ferguson, who is global vice president for security research for IT firm Trend Micro, as he demonstrated the hack. Yet, many users still refuse to believe how vulnerable they are when they use mobile devices, he added.
Technology experts are warning that mobile devices have become the next lock to pick for cyber criminals.
One in three mobile users globally has been exposed to some form of mobile cyber crime, according to a 2012 report by anti-virus firm Norton by Symantec.
In Singapore, one in five adults has been a victim of either social or mobile cyber crime, such as scams. Victims suffered an estimated US$944 million in losses, the report said.
As mobile devices become smarter, they have become more susceptible to hacking. They are almost always connected and are often loaded with much more personal information. For hackers, these devices are easy targets and a treasure trove of intimate data that they can obtain and sell.
“Criminals follow consumer behaviour. The more we move from traditional to mobile devices, the more they will too,” Ferguson said.
Currently, the most common threats are what are known as premium-rate billing scams – apps secretly running software in the background to inflate phone bills.
By the end of 2011, more than 350,000 malicious Android apps were circulating online.
“That’s when we first saw the first uptick of malware,” Ferguson said. By the end of this year, the firm expects to see more than a million.
Mobile users can protect themselves by buying apps only from trusted vendors such as Google or Apple. It’s also a good idea to read the “permissions” that apps require before downloading them.
