Smartphone threats get “serious” in 2009

Next year will see the threat to smartphones get serious, according to Kaspersky Labs.

The vendor said that the smartphone was undergoing the same evolutionary trajectory as PCs, which in the space of ten years moved from slow and unwieldy modem connections to high-speed fixed price internet access.

3G and even more advanced connectivity will mean smartphones are likely to be targeted by cybercriminals in 2009. Mobile phones will be compromised and “corralled” into botnets, just like with PCs.

Magnus Kalkuhl, member of the Kaspersky Lab Global Research and Analyst Team, said: “Although mobile malware in 2009 is likely to be limited in scope and volume, by 2010 the situation will be far more serious."

He added: "In five years time - at the latest - mobile malware will sadly have become part of daily life.”

There was a hint of good news as Kaspersky Labs predicted that next year the old method of spreading malicious code via email would almost disappear. This is because spam filters had become very efficient at filtering junk out and computer users had become savvier to the threat of infected email attachments.

However, the threat will simply have changed to web-based malware, which many users worldwide will not pick up as a problem, as it is often held on legitimate sites and spread via links.

Kalkuhl said: “The malicious program can then start its nasty tricks, whether that’s logging keystrokes, stealing someone’s ID, or downloading more malware.

“As these links may be routed over a number of servers, the user gets redirected from one machine to another, even though he or she doesn’t notice this.”

According to Kalkuhl, these ‘virtual relays’ as he put it, required additional efforts on the parts of anti-virus vendors when identifying new malware. This means that these methods were certain to be used more frequently next year.

Click here for more 2009 malware threats.

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