Cybercriminals specifically target mobile phones and tablets

The booming use of smartphones and mobile tablets make these tools to be very vulnerable to cybercriminals attacks who keep on refining their techniques. Users are just not aware of the risks, and technologies are yet unsuited to fight those attacks.

“Today a smartphone is more like a computer than a phone, its basic use is reduced to the bare minimum. People just want to connect anywhere, anytime, with all kinds of devices “, says Laurent Heslault , director of security strategies Symantec France.

For example, in France, 57% of the mobile users say they have already received a message from a stranger asking them to click on a link or to call a number to listen to a voice message.

Actually, there have been recently more web pages accessed from smartphones or tablets as from PCs, and this represents a goldmine for hackers.

Cybercriminals often operate through corrupt applications which once downloaded geotarget their victim so as to send targeted advertising, or incite them to dial premium rate numbers to generate income.

It is after consulting unsecured sites or using unsecure wi-fi networks, i. e. after one does check his/her bank account from their mobile or via phishing ” (through identity theft ) that one can experience some “malware” intended to collect some lists of contacts or passwords.

” There are some very simple things to do , such as setting passwords on their devices, not opening attachments from an unidentified sender, being careful when downloading apps, being wary, for example, those which have not been much uploaded “advises Edward Jeanson, responsible for Sogeti group security.

Another expert from the computer security company Trend Micro confirms the “exponential” growth of attacks on mobile platforms: “only for the Android platform (Google’s operating system), around 100,000 attacks of any kind have already been identified since early 2012, “said one of its experts Johanne Ulloa.

“The platforms show quite some lateness and have a lot of vulnerabilities. Apple is doing well, Blackberry has an appropriate level of security, but in Android, it is difficult to correct the flaws” said Sylvain Gil from Imperva.

He believes, however, that as for the technological level, there is no solution, and it will take several years to counter this. “The problem is that anti-virus protect against virus from yesterday, not for today and for tomorrow, as for the time they are developed, cybercriminals have already moved on to something else.”

To avoid your mobile phone or tablet to become a target for cybercriminals, be careful about what you publish on the Web. Use the services of a VPN when you surf on the Internet and that, regardless of the place you are: all your Internet activities are anonymous and protected by a complex military coding type, using open VPN and PPTP VPN. In addition, through the virtual VPN tunnel that you establish, your secure VPN connection appearing as a connection from your selected country, you will change & hide your IP address. This is true if you connect from your computer, your mobile phone or tablet. And you can use free WiFi networks, without your computer taking the risk that your traffic is intercepted.