In the past few months, more than one market research organization has reported that mobile devices will become the “hardest hit area” in the security field in 2014, especially those mobile devices used by employees of government agencies and enterprises. It may become the target of hackers, and the security vulnerabilities in most well-known mobile applications will also give illegal elements more opportunities.

Last year, the U.S. government warned that Android devices have become a major threat to the security of individuals and businesses. Not long ago, 4.6 million usernames and related information of the well-known “burn after reading” app Snapchat were stolen by hackers. At the same time, researchers discovered There is a serious loophole in the user authentication mechanism of the application. Hackers can use this loophole to launch a denial of service attack and cause the user's iPhone to crash directly.

The above-mentioned situations are enough to cause enough attention of mobile phone users. Then, with regard to the safety of mobile devices, which aspects should we know or pay attention to?

(1) Mobile applications are not safe

The latest data from the security company MetaIntell shows that among the top 500 Android applications, up to 92% of the applications have security risks. Of course, this problem does not only exist on the Android platform. For example, the iOS version of the Snapchat application mentioned above also has a security funnel, so there is no absolutely secure mobile platform. Users must be Beware of application.

(2) Follow the trends of hackers

The "Annual Security Report" released by British anti-virus software manufacturer Sophos last year showed that Android has surpassed Windows to become the world's most popular platform for hackers. There are also reports showing that iOS is currently the mobile platform with the fastest growth in the number of hackers. Once hackers target mobile devices, users may suffer unimaginable losses.

(3) Communication is the main target of hacker attacks

Communication has become the main target of hackers all over the world. In fact, in the past year, multiple security vendors have issued reports stating that SMS is the most commonly used method for hackers to invade mobile devices to steal information. Most of them use methods to trick mobile phone users into clicking malicious links in emails. Attacks are launched against devices, so we must take strict precautions against these hackers.

(4) Steal corporate data

Most companies are very concerned about the company's data security. In fact, they are not worried about hackers, but their employees. Fiberlink, a mobile device management company under IBM, recently stated that among the applications that have been "blacklisted" by enterprises, the top ones are cloud storage services including DropBox and Google Drive. For enterprises, one of the biggest threats to data security is to prevent employees from taking sensitive data outside of the work area or storing it in third-party cloud services.

(5) Hardware security

While many mobile devices and safety topics are inseparable from software, but in fact for smart phones and tablet PCs , because of its highly mobile, so it is vulnerable to theft or malicious use of certain internal staff, so the move The security of hardware equipment also needs to be improved urgently.

(6) Jailbreaking will increase the risk of the device

Although iOS devices can install more applications after jailbreaking, this also gives hackers an opportunity. In fact, most of the iOS devices that have been hacked are jailbroken devices, because after jailbreaking, users are allowed to install and run unverified applications on the device. Sometimes this is a good thing, but in many cases, this is actually It's an outright bad thing.

(7) The biometric security issues of the enterprise

Biometric technology is also an area that corporate users have to watch out for. Although in the consumer electronics market, biometric devices such as fingerprint recognition modules and iris scanners can help improve the safety factor of devices, this may be a challenge for companies. Nightmare. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device, BYOD office ) has become many companies are permitted to work mode, but which potentially huge security risk, imagine if employees can use their own personal devices in the office, so even if these devices have Fingerprint recognition or iris recognition module, who can guarantee that these devices will not leak?

(8) More and more malware

In the next few years, malware targeting mobile devices will continue to rise. The well-known security vendor McAfee released a report last month, stating that malware targeting mobile devices in 2013 increased by 33% compared to 2012. This data It is expected to continue to grow in 2014. At least from the current situation, mobile malware has not slowed down.

(9) Potential dangers in e-commerce

Statistics show that when malicious hackers launch attacks on mobile devices, their targets prefer to lock onto the user's credit card. This situation is completely unexpected, because malicious hackers in the PC era tend to find ways to steal users’ credit card information, but now with the booming e-commerce, these hackers have turned their attention to smartphones and tablets. Wait for the mobile device, so when you are using a mobile device for online transactions, you must be cautious.

(10) Monitoring by the government

If Snowden hadn't exposed the National Security Agency (NSA) and other federal government agencies' plans to monitor people through mobile devices last year, there might be many people who would not be concerned about mobile phone security. A report in January of this year pointed out that a third-party mobile advertising network allowed the NSA to access user data and obtain all the information about these users. Therefore, for mobile phone users, it is also necessary to guard against monitoring from the government at all times.