Tag: smartphone security

Mobile commerce security not as important as convenience for holiday shoppers

A Trustlook survey showed that consumers will ignore certain risks in exchange for easy shopping.

Mobile commerce security is an important issue this holiday season. Seventy one percent of smartphone owners plan to use their mobile devices to help them along some point of the shopping journey.

Trustlook has recently released a survey with results from which it has made its holiday predictions.

The Trustlook survey focused on smartphone users with Android phones. The goal was to accurately forecast consumer behaviors throughout the holiday shopping season this year. What they found was that 40 percent of the survey participants actually prefer shopping over smartphones. This despite the mobile commerce security concerns that have been holding back the channel’s adoption.

Mobile Commerce Security - Shopping via smartphoneAnother 18 percent of the survey participants said that their preference was to shop in-store during the holidays. The results revealed that 43 percent of smartphone users will be making over $250 in purchases over their devices. The top m-commerce apps were identified as Amazon, eBay and Walmart.

That said, shoppers haven’t taken adequate mobile commerce security steps to protect themselves.

Even though 70.35 percent of participants in the survey said they planned to make a purchase over a smartphone or tablet, they were not protecting their personal and financial data. In fact, a wide majority of people hadn’t even installed security software. Sixty four percent of survey respondents did not have a mobile security app installed on their device.

Trustlook CEO, Zllan Zhang, said “Mobile shoppers need to be more cautious than ever,” adding that “This risk isn’t going away as mobile shopping activity ramps up.”

This is an interesting finding as concerns over mobile security have been among the top cited reasons that people have held off shopping over smartphones. It appears that there is a growing group of people who are moving ahead with smartphone based shopping regardless of that potential issue.

The hope from security firms is that if consumers are willing to ignore the mobile commerce security risk, they will at least take more steps to protect themselves. There are several small steps such as security apps that can help to keep sensitive data safer.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month reminds us to keep our data safe

Local, state and federal agencies are using October to educate businesses, organizations and individuals.

October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month in the United States. Agencies at a federal, state and local level use this time to provide education about safe internet use. It is applicable to everyone from individuals to companies, organizations, charities, schools, universities and anyone else who connects to the internet.

This is a concern that is familiar to computer users but mobile security remains a low priority for many.

Despite the fact that many people are aware that their mobile devices can be hacked, the most basic steps are often ignored. A large portion of the population still has not taken the most primary steps to protect their mobile devices. For example, many people have not created a password to lock their devices. Moreover, those who have a mobile antivirus app installed remain in the minority. Cyber Security Awareness Month is designed to help improve this situation.

There are many threats that Mobile Security Awareness Month is hoping people will begin to recognize.

National Cyber Security Awareness Month - Mobile SecurityAmong the threats faced by mobile device users include: identity theft, viruses, phishing attempts, and online harassment. October is a good time for people to think about these concerns and take action to protect themselves against them.

Many of these efforts are exceptionally easy to implement and use. For instance:

• Parents can speak with their children about staying safe when using a mobile phone or tablet.
• Computers, smartphones and tablets should have antivirus and firewall software installed and activated.
• The added security features built right into the majority of smeartphones should be activated and used.
• Apps should be kept up to date for the most secure versions.
• Pay attention to suspicious ads, activities and behaviors and avoid opening or clicking on any of them.
• Back up files regularly and keep passwords strong – alternately use a secure password manager.

Cyber Security Awareness Month isn’t designed to frighten people. Only to educate them so they can keep their data safe. By taking these steps now, they will soon become second nature.