Mobile mania?

Crystal ballMany security experts are asked to make prediction as to the new trends and exploits to watch-out for in 2010.  Having read a number of these ‘predictions’, there is a consensus, that one area to watch-over is that of ‘mobile’. The burgeoning growth in mobile apps, coupled with the explosive growth in ‘smartphones’,  has all of the security experts predicting interesting times ahead.

The past holiday season allowed me to watch some television and relax, or so I thought. However, I was quite struck by ads that were run by HSBC and Lloyds banks. They were using prime time (read for that, expensive) national television to trumpet the ability to download and use their new mobile banking apps, for free. This got me thinking. It is clear that the banks want their customers to now access and use banking services from smartphones. They are spending big on advertising to build awareness of this capability, and to generally get the word out there. Accessing services from your smartphone is the way of the future. Albeit, with initiatives like this, the future has now arrived for many of us.

There is an immutable law of  internet security, that where you have large numbers of people and there is money involved, there quickly follows the cyber-criminals. To date most of the malware written for ‘mobile’ devices have been mostly ‘proof of concept’ stuff, a sort of limbering up before the main event. We will have to see what ultimately comes to pass in 2010, but it does seem that ‘mobile’ will be interesting.

January 4, 2010 | Filed Under Security 

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