Chapter X - ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SECURITY * Smart Shoppers attracts Smart Cyber Criminals

Users have always been the weakest point in terms of cyber security threats. System and network administrators are constantly updating and maintaining their computers network with the latest technology to prevent and contain a variety of security risks but the headache is always users behavior. Weak passwords, careless browsing, indiscipline towards security policies are some of the flaws committed by users which could open back doors of the systems and compromise corporate data, assets and in the worst scenario, represents huge financial losses to companies.

With the rising trend of smartphone adoption the risk is now been transferred to users pockets. Smart shoppers are using their devices through all the transaction funnel. The possibility to buy goods or services and make financial transaction such as, money transfer through the Smartphone devices is available now to half of the Americans. The growing popularity is attracting criminals and antivirus firms are reporting for 2010 the rise of 46% of security threats to mobile devices.

Virus, trojan horses and other malicious codes usually build to target PCs are now directed to mobile devices.  Hidden between applications and games these threats take advantage of connectivity and computing power of the devices to trigger every kind of criminal actions such as destroy data, spying user, steal personal information, make calls, send messages or even take control of the device and use it remotely to attack servers.

Sloopy codes of the applications are other entry sources for malware attacks. In 2009 Citigroup launched a mobile banking application for iPhone which was not properly sealed and could have let criminals access to the banking information for 118,000 clients who downloaded the application. Fortunately the flaw was discover before any attack and clients didn't lost money or information. These kind of threat highlights the risk that is around and how desirable the mobile platform is becoming for cyber-criminals.


Symbiam OS is the most affect by these threats but Android is becoming highly targeted. With a huge base of applications, specialists are saying that 2% of the apps are able to send messages without user's knowledge, while 5% can dial without permission, and since Android OS is an open platform the vulnerability is very high. Contrasting, till now the iOS from Apple is the most secure. Applications in the Apple Store are submitted to a verification process to guaranty that they are secure before going online.

However, since most user don't even think about security on smartphones, vendors are all working on to make the mobile OS more secure, locking down possible entry's and creating centralize feature to neutralize menaces.

Online Sources:
King5Technology
MobileMedia
VentureBeat
Articles:
- Bloomberg Business Week - Smartphones Apps Go (Trully) Viral
- SC Magazine - Smart Target