Attack of the 50-foot mobile virus risk
Wednesday, October 1. 2008
Don't believe the hype - show us the malware
Increased standardisation across mobile devices will make it easier for miscreants to write malicious code, a Gartner analyst has warned - but the familiar prediction overlooks a bigger threat.
The warning makes for a repeat of a long-standing anti-virus industry prediction that has yet to come to fruition. Meanwhile, the risks posed by sensitive data left on insecure mobile devices remains largely ignored.
Speaking at the opening day on the Gartner IT Security Summit in London on Monday, Gartner analyst John Girard said that increased standardisation across smart phones and mobile devices was making life easier for the bad guys. Advanced phones running the same OS used to have different implementations of mobile Java or different configurations, but Girard argued this is beginning to change, Computing reports.
"The more your phone gets like a PC, the more it can host malicious code or have its function altered by someone else," Girard said, adding that scam emails that form the basis of phishing attacks were likely to become more common on mobile platforms next year.
Gartner advises businesses to adopt device encryption and access controls, as well as insisting on a minimum set of security specifications in order to minimise possible risks.
Three years ago Girard and fellow Gartner analyst John Pescatore dismissed mobile malware as a "niche nuisance," until at least the end of 2007. It said that the conditions needed to spread mobile malware - a high penetration of smartphone and the routine exchange of executable files by mobiles - were yet to materialise.
At present, smartphone penetration hasn't reached the levels widely predicted. We'd add that expertise among virus writers about how to write mobile malware remains low - and since a handy profit can be turned from infecting PCs, the question arises of "why bother?".
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