Is your phone vulnerable to a cyberattack? If you're making any of these very common mistakes, the answer is yes.
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By Joe McKinley
Cybercrime is, unfortunately, a growth industry, and more and more, bad actors are using our phones as their point of attack. According to research conducted by the digital security company iovation, 59 percent of risky transactions in North America happen on mobile devices. “Fraudsters are like chameleons. They are always adapting their tactics to make it look like they’re legitimate customers,” said Melissa Gaddis, iovation’s Senior Director of Customer Success, of the study’s findings.
The other problem is that most people don’t understand just how much their phones put them at risk. “There is a very common misconception that phones are not susceptible to hackers the same way computers are,” says Alexander M. Kehoe, co-founder and Operations Director of Caveni Digital Solutions. “While this may have been true when smartphones first became popular, it is simply no longer the case. In fact, in the United States, nearly 1.42 percent of all devices have been subject to a ransomware attack. So out of every 100 people you pass on the street, at least one of those people has had a virus on their phone.”
This is a problem for individuals—and the companies they work for. “Growing numbers of people are accessing sensitive corporate and personal content on the same mobile device they use for checking Facebook, downloading games, and e-mailing friends,” says Eric Williams, founder and CEO of ijura, a mobile threat defense solutions provider. “Personal apps can be a serious exposure point, as many hackers use legitimate apps to create trust with users while getting them to pass over sensitive information or download malicious content.”
We asked cyber experts to share the most vulnerable points of attack that criminals use to access the data on your phone—and what you can do to protect yourself. Read more >>