Author: Rebecca

Mobile security threats are growing and evolving

| January 9, 2014

Predictions consistently forecast a massive increase in problems of this nature for smartphones and tablets.

The latest forecasts regarding mobile security threats in 2014 have indicated that clickjacking, watering hole attacks, and other threats over smartphones and tablets will continue to grow in the danger that they will present.

Cyber criminals are increasingly expanding the focus of their attacks to a broader range of technologies.

According to Trend Micro, these cyber criminals are tucking themselves away in the Deep Web and are using much more sophisticated and targeted attack campaigns. This firm, which is an expert in internet and mobile security threats, has made its predictions for this year and has released them in its web video project which was entitled “2020: the Series”. This looked not only at this year but at the problems that will be faced right through to the end of this decade.

According to the firm, this year will already be a considerable one for mobile security threats.

Mobile Security Threats on the RiseThe CTO of Trend Micro, Raimund Genes, has explained that 2014 will be a “prolific year for cybercrime”. This will have an impact on individuals, businesses, and even governments. Among the most common techniques are likely to be spear phishing, open source research. These are forecasted to experience a large amount of growth this year, particularly as best practice knowledge is shared throughout the cyber criminal community.

Two of the most problematic areas in smartphone and tablet use will be in dangers in mobile banking and in targeted attacks. The report indicated that the traditional two-step verification will no longer be enough to ensure that the user remains protected.

Other forms of attack that are likely to continue to take off are malicious apps as well as man-in-the-middle attacks. These are likely to be problematic for both individual consumers and corporate users of smartphones.

The vice president of security research Trend Micro, Rik Ferguson, spoke of this trend in mobile security threats, saying that “Technology advances only more rapidly and attackers are consistently just behind the crest of that innovation, waiting for widespread consumer adoption of new gadgets, new platforms or new ways of doing things.”

Mobile app downloads this holiday season shows slowing growth

| January 3, 2014

This year still had the largest figures to date, but the year over year increases are beginning to ease.

Over the holiday season, tablets and smartphones proved to be a highly popular gift, yet again, and it should therefore not come as a shock to anyone that the number of mobile app downloads broke another range of records in 2013.

This most recent gift giving season saw an increase of 91 percent in downloaded applications.

That rate was seen on Christmas day when compared to the average daily rate of mobile app downloads that was experienced for the rest of December up until that day. This data was reported in a recent publication by Flurry, a mobile measurements and analytics platform. That company examined the transfer of more than 400,000 applications in order to determine what recipients of new iOS and Android devices were doing with them after they were unwrapped as gifts from under the tree.

The research found that mobile app downloads also increased by 11 percent.

mobile app downloads That growth figure was recorded between the number of downloaded applications on Christmas day 2013 when compared to the same day in 2012. As much as the numbers are still increasing and continue to break records, they are also starting to slow in their growth. The reason is believed to be that fewer consumers are receiving their devices for the first time. Though some have just obtained their first devices, many have obtained their second, third, or even fourth ones.

Consumers who already have smartphones and who have now received tablets, or who are receiving replacement devices already know what apps they like and trust. There is less experimenting to try out different things for the first time.

Flurry’s report explained that “New device activations do still spike on Christmas, but that spike is waning compared to years past, and it comes on top of a much larger installed base. That means that when new devices are loaded with apps, the overall impact on app download volume is not as big.”

It also pointed out that the largest increases in device ownership and mobile app downloads are typically in countries where there is a less significant importance placed on Christmas or where it is not celebrated.