Users spend most of their digital lives on smartphones and tablet mobile platforms thus making it an increasingly attractive target for cybercriminals. According to IDC, mobile devices are overtaking PCs as the preferred access point to the Internet and over the next four years, the number of people using their computer to go online will decline further to 15 million, while the number of mobile phone users will increase by 91 million.
The mobile platform is therefore becoming increasingly attractive to cybercriminals and, in parallel, the complexity and volume of threats to the detriment of consumers will continue to increase.
The SNS Research’s latest report indicates that mobile networks around the world would generate more than 86 Exabytes of traffic annually. The massive growth of Android devices and the largely unregulated app market have just led to a sharp increase in volume of traffic. But at the same time, cybercriminals are doing everything possible to insert the infected applications in reliable sources such as Google Play and the risks inherent in all apps are becoming more complex.
This has in turn led to significant global spending on mobile devices and network security infrastructure, software and services. The “Mobile Security (mSecurity) Bible: 2014 – 2020” SNS Research found that the mobile security market is expected to exceed $11 billion by the end of 2014 with investments in integrated security appliances and content security gateways as well as mobile Security as a Service (SEaaS).
Dangerous app could allow someone to steal personal information such as bank account credentials, login to e-mail or wireless account and twist the data with those related to the position to have a complete picture of the victim; perpetrate fraud, such as sending a text message that will be charged to the user without his approval; and abuse of a device making it part of a botnet criminal, allowing someone to control the phone remotely.
Client botnets, rootkits and downloader software generics are sold on the black market profits in real software toolkit. As a result of this, installation of anti-malware and anti-virus client software is thriving faster downloads and the basic requirement for most smartphones and tablets. Companies like Apple, Samsung, HTC and others have also introduced advanced biometrics such as fingerprint sensing into their smartphones and tablets to stop virus and malware.
The report presents a comprehensive assessment of the worldwide mobile device and network security market covering key market drivers, challenges, future roadmap, value chain analysis, deployment case studies and vendor service and product strategies. The report says that more than half of all enterprises allow the use of employed owned mobile devices on their networks. Enterprises thus continue to aggressively adopt SSL VPNs in their mobile security strategies to ensure connection security in addition to activity monitoring and control. Moreover, on a mobile device, Mobile Device Management (MDM) service providers are making significant investments to help secure data, reduce risk and protect the enterprise.
McAfee Labs in its annual 2014 Predictions Report also predicted a sharp increase attack of ransomware aimed at mobile devices as more business shifting to mobile and the expansion of BYOD trend.