 Security firms gird for attacks on smart phonesWednesday, June 9, 2010 MORE TECHNOLOGY   Mobile devices have been mostly spared from the onslaught of cyber-attacks that prey on computer users every day, but security vendors are already positioning themselves in anticipation of a swell in the demand for such services and products in the next couple of years. "Nobody's making money at the moment with mobile security. But all the players assume that sooner or later we will see a major outbreak or some other major event that will change the situation forever," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at Finland-based mobile security leader F-Secure. Not at critical mass Experts say smart phones have not reached critical mass yet; thus, they haven't caught the attention of online criminals and still don't merit their efforts. However, sales of such devices - and the competition in this industry - are clearly on the rise. On Monday, Apple unveiled its latest iPhone, and Sprint Nextel Corp. said its new HTC Corp. Evo 4G handset broke the company's one-day record for sales of a single phone. The mobile market also remains very fragmented, and there is still no single obvious target, said Charlie Miller, security researcher at Independent Security Evaluators and renowned Apple hacker. In the computer world, "basically everybody is on Windows," he said. "But for phones you have Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile and etcetera. It takes more effort to write malware for six operating systems instead of one." |
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/06/09/BU971DR8K1.DTL&type=tech#ixzz0qN092mjd
