Smart Phone Security

Smart phones such as BlackBerrys, Treos and the iPhones has gained great popularity in the consumer and business market. These phones are able to schedule meetings, keep contact information, take notes and record audio and video footage as well as access the Internet. These great features bring conveniences and great security risk.

These cell/smart phones are becoming digital wallets… 10 years ago people did not keep the type of vital information they do today.

Hackers are able to pull information such as address books, text messages, email and notes that may contact account numbers, passwords and PINs.

New trends in the wireless industry are making it easier for hacking attacks, said John Girard, a Gartner vice president, who spoke at the IT Security Summit in London.

A few years ago, there was not a lot of standardization across wireless devices. Differing operating systems, differing implementations of mobile Java, and even varying configurations among devices with the same operating system made it hard to write malicious code that ran on a wide array of devices, Girard said.

But that's changing as the quality control gets better on widely used platforms such as Microsoft's Windows Mobile and the Symbian operating system, he said. That standardization makes it easier for attackers to write code that will run on many devices.

"The more your phone gets like a PC, the more it can host malicious code," Girard said. "People are getting used to sending out executable code."