Next target – mobile devices

A survey conducted in North America reveals that 60 percent of respondents have seen an increase in security issues related to the use of handheld computing devices in the last 12 months. Although there haven’t been any noticeable epidemics of mobile viruses, developers have already introduced concept malware, proving that inevitably, with the rapid growth of mobile devices and smartphones, this issue will be making front pages in the future.

There also are predictions that the next major security challenge for businesses will be securing smartphones, although experts say that a simple rule as “If you do not need to do it – don’t do it” still can be applied for now. That means resist sending any data using you laptop or smartphone from a nonsecure WiFi hot spot, as the information sent could be monitored easily and thus every attempt to access the network remotely is a security risk.

Security experts say that the problem’s not with the business-orientated smartphones, but with consumer-orientated mobile phones that are taking up more and more of PC characteristics, such as WiFi connectivity, but still have far fewer safety features compared to those of smartphones. Although the biggest issue still is the password protection – neglecting to set new passwords on phones or other devices leaves them vulnerable.

Security industry officials say that the profit is what drives the attacks and it’s no wonder, the times when hacking was for the pleasure of defacing the website are long gone.