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.
The 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.”
Within the studies, it was revealed that the main source of end-user revenue was made up of 30 percent mobile commerce, 37 percent social networks, but also a very large 53 percent m-banking.