Privacy, Security & Virus Information

Button down your smartphone security before it is too late

Just now all the buzz online is about smartphones, Which one is better, which one is lighter and a variety of other points that has got the media working flat out. But you can be sure that on the dark side of the internet hyperspace the hackers and the botmasters are working hard to find a way to penetrate the so far questionable defences put up to protect the fast growing army of smartphone users.

Most people who have acquired a smartphone are internet savvy. They will be aware of how the internet operates, what firewall can do for them, and even the dangers of viruses. However something that they may have yet to absorb is that little rectangular object is a computer none the less, and as such. If not treated as one will represent a lot of danger to those who use it without protection.

The latest trend among those whose role within the hacking industry it is to compromise smartphone security have been working flat out on a fairly ambitious project to establish a botnet chain for smartphones. For those who have never heard of botnets, they are nasty little things that are injected into computers to lie dormant till those who control them, known in the industry as botmasters, unleash them in a spontaneous attack that is expected to cause unprecedented financial damage. The reason why internet security experts are painting such a black picture is that while very few business people have become victims of botnet attacks to date on their desk top and lap tops, estimates are that smartphones are still very vulnerable and if infiltrated sensitive information at a very high level could fall into the wrong hands.

It is expected that the first stages of the botnet scheme is already being enacted, and the sleeper virus has been downloaded on to a very large number of phones in the guise of an innocent looking piece of music or even an e-mail attachment. The kind of attachment that most people, who are any aware of the dangers of hacking, would automatically delete if it came into their computer.

Smartphone users should snap out of their euphoria and realise that not only they are vulnerable to attack, but that it can be readily prevented. If you need to download apps or open e-mail attachments without being totally certain of the source, at least make sure that you have a powerful anti-virus installed on what are your computer and not your new toy.

 

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