CybersecurityCell phones are hackers' target of choice
In its fourth quarter threat report, McAfee announced that hackers have increasingly turned their attention to smart phones; in 2010 there was a 56 percent increase in malware targeting cell phones; hackers most frequently used Adobe products like PDFs and Flash to embed pernicious code; Google’s Android smart phone operating system was also a target of choice; the report noted that spam levels were down 62 percent, while politically motivated hacking was on the rise
Smart phones are the new hacker target // Source: droidedup.com
McAfee recently announced in its fourth quarter threat report that hackers have increasingly turned their attention to smart phones.
The report, released last week, found that in 2010 there was a 56 percent increase in malware targeting cell phones. Cyber criminals primarily exploited weaknesses in PDFs, Flash, and other Adobe products to embed viruses, trojans, and other pernicious code.
Adobe products overtook Microsoft as the target of choice for hackers. The change is largely believed to be the result of the common use of Adobe features on mobile devices.
In the report, McAfee explains that “as more users access the Internet from an ever-expanding pool of devices — computer, tablet, smartphone or Internet TV — web-based threats will continue to grow in size and sophistication.”
McAfee also found that Google’s Android smart phone operating system is a preferred targeted of hackers.
Google recently replaced Nokia as the world’s leading manufacturer of software for smart phones.
While cell phone attacks have been on the rise, spam levels actually dropped by 62 percent last year.
The report also noted that politically motivated hacking was on the rise, citing attacks by the “Anonymous” activist group in defense of Wikileaks as the most high profile case.
The group crashed several major sites that had rescinding its services to Wikileaks including Amazon, PayPal, and MasterCard.
