Smart phones No. 1 mobile attack vector, up to 40% of apps infected
View(s):Smart phones today are the number one mobile attack vectors, with 20 to 40 per cent of apps being infected because of a lack of vetting, according to Sujit Christy, Director at Layers-7 Seguro Consultoria. Further, apps represent the “perfect storm” of scurity, namely billions of intelligent devices, an inherently insecure infrastructure and smart bad guys.
However, he added that security should facilitate business, and not be a stop-sign, inhibiting it. So someone in a company has to take the responsibility and decide how much risk was acceptable. And, especially with Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) company policies now being replaced by the more secure Choose Your Own Device (CYOD) ones, wherein employees have the option to select a single, company sourced device for work, the push for mobilisation was currently being held up by financial and security considerations only.
Mr. Christy made these comments at private sector IT-BPO body SLASSCOM’s “Mobile COE Executive Briefing on Future Outlook for Mobile Security”, which was held recently in Colombo, and for which he was the keynote speaker.
Also speaking at the event, Rohana Palliyaguru, from the Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Readiness Team (SL CERT), revealed that malware was the major issue locally, with mobile operating systems such as Android and others being infected by viruses. He further added that spyware was also common. On the other hand, he also commented that mobility related incidents were still somewhat rare domestically with five or six reported so far, and most related to internet access.
Additionally, Mr. Palliyaguru also opined that one way to safeguard smart phones were to check the digital signatures of all apps being downloaded, verifying the source of the app is a reputable one.
(JH)