Smartphones to be targets of cyberattacks in 2012

Mobile device security might be of utmost importance to Americans in the coming months after hearing security experts predictions that 2012 will be a record-breaking year for cyberattacks on smartphones.

The combination of personal information and business emails and contacts stored on them makes smartphones a sought-after target for criminals. According to MSNBC, cellphone attacks have been hyped the last few years, but issues with mobile device security in 2011 led to experts taking cyberattacks seriously.

“In 2012, we expect to see the mobile malware business turn profitable,” Kevin Mahaffey, a security expert, told the source. “What took 15 years on the PC platform has only taken the mobile ecosystem two years.”

In a recently released report, a mobile security company estimated that Android users lost millions of dollars to cyberthieves in 2011, while the risk of experiencing malware on an Android device is now 4 percent. The same report stated that more mobile attacks are likely to come in the form of phishing emails and malicious website links. This could be of particular concern to businesses, given that 2011 saw large-scale phishing attacks targeting companies or spoofing them.

MSNBC reported that malware is doing things on smartphones usually only seen on computers, such as intercepting financial transactions, sending text messages to premium SMS services without the user's knowledge, collecting information about the places the user goes, and fooling users into providing private information.

The source encouraged smartphone users to protect their mobile devices with software that will soon hit the market, designed to guard private information.

However, Paul Reynolds, electronics editor for Consumer Reports, believes mobile device security shouldn't be considered a priority just yet.

“We don’t think that people have to install yet another program for security on their phones, at least not now,” Reynolds said to MSNBC. “Probably the biggest security threat is losing your phone.”

The source spoke to another security expert who agreed with Reynolds, saying mobile security should be about the basics, which are having a strong password, using encryption and making sure mobile devices are running the latest versions of apps and phone operating system. However, even this expert acknowledged that much more intensive security might be called for within a year to 18 months.

The Android platform might prove especially vulnerable in the near-term. Android users globally now have a 36 percent chance of clicking on an unsafe link, according to Fox Business, and the odds increase to 40 percent for U.S. residents.