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News >> Technology >>
Smartphone more vulnerable to virus attacks
By siliconindia
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Friday, 22 April 2011, 18:25 IST
Bangalore: There has been a dramatic increase in the number of people using iPhones, Androids and other smartphones. And the increase in consumers in smartphones has raised serious threat from virus and calls for high internal security measures. As per the report published by Kaspersky the hackers has shift its concentration in making virus for smartphones rather than computers. According to the report most of the smartphones are not secure from these viruses.
The popular belief that Androids are immune to viruses because they use the Linux system is a myth. Android has already had its first major virus, and the virus had no problem getting past the Linux security features.
The default settings in our mobile is no longer enough and one has to look out for some form of protection in their Smartphone. Smartphone have become the ideal storage house for one's sensitive information, including financial records and passwords.
According to an annual report released by McAfee cyber criminals has particularly turned its attention towards Google's Android mobile operating system and Apple's iPhone as they gain market share. McAfee said most mobile viruses targeted users are of Nokia's Symbian operating system.
It is also possible for hackers to spy on smartphone users, recording calls and text messages, steal banking information.
According to a security firm specializing in mobile devices, hackers have planted viruses in video games for smartphones running on Microsoft's Windows operating system.
However the Kaspersky report reveals that there is a staggering increased of 65.12 percent virus attacks on Smart Phones in 2010 as compared to the previous year whereas iPhone registered only one virus attack so far and that too was on the Jail broken iPhone.
iPhone has its own built-in security system thats pretty effective. It limits what other computers, applications and networks one interacts with. This reassures the solid foundation of Apple in the market.
In anticipation of such attacks computer security companies like Norton and Kaspersky started developing their anti-virus software even before the first attacks were launched against the smartphones. Now that it has become a hard reality. Apart from Norton and Kaspersky there are various antivirus protections available in the market which offers security to smartphone users. F-Secure Anti-Virus 2006 offers an easy to use protection for smartphones against viruses. McAfee also makes its own smartphone anti-virus software. ESET's anti-virus software does a little of everything, including fighting viruses, spyware, spam, Trojans, worms and adware. BullGuard is another system that's designed to be user-friendly. Trend Micro Mobile Security is also a great program for businesses. It offers all the usual anti-virus protection.
Hence there are various numbers of measures for the internal security of the smartphones. But it is on the users to make full use of it and prevent any such virus attacks.