Over half of all companies store sensitive customer information on mobile devices. It is a remarkable percentage that when dwelled on, can be truly alarming. Jason Ankeny, an Executive Editor of FierceMobileContent and FierceDeveloper and Jeff Drew, Senior Editor of The Journal of Accountancy, have concluded just that. A major shift toward mobile device procurement and usage has taken place in just a few years’ time. In parallel, development of mobile applications –programs designed to run on mobile equipment-- have also developed along a similar curve and timeline. As this explosion in development takes place, information security professionals struggle to stay ahead of new threats. Many companies have changed their respective …show more content…
The apps are authored by a wide range of entities, from very large companies to individual software developers. Major app markets review apps prior to distribution, yet malicious apps have still been available for download periodically. Major markets are not the only place apps can be found though. Smaller venders can distribute apps virtually unchecked anywhere on the internet. How does that expose the average user? Trend Micro identified one million malicious and risky applications in the third quarter of 2013, surging from 425,000 at the beginning of the year (Ankany, 49). The exposure is quite substantial. Luckily, large companies that issue mobile devices generally employ some type of software control as added protection. Can the same be said for smaller companies without the money to invest in those controls? Would they even know if their equipment was hacked? One thousand small businesses surveyed by Office Depot and McAfee didn’t seem to know. Approximately 66% expressed confidence that their data and devices were secure and 77% said they were never hacked. (Ankany, 48). Without tangible controls in place, one may assume that the actual percentages are much smaller than thought by these small businesses. Hackers already have acted on that assumption, and successfully. Given the grim numbers regarding the increasing numbers of malicious apps, could it really get any worse? Unfortunately, the answer to
In today 's time, many individuals have a smart phone, tablet or a laptop that can be easily hacked anytime of the day, expect for Apple products for example. Apple uses complicated software that even when we download and app from the iTunes stores, that app is technically a small world all on its own. Once an Apple app is closed it 's closed. Unlike Andriods, Apple apps have their own software and like other Apple products, that software does not does not have a back
Accessing company information through the use of mobile devices has some great advantages. But even with all the advantages, there are still risks associated with using mobile devices. As businesses uses these devices to gain entry to sensitive corporate information, the number and types of devices are increasing and are becoming more known, which opens the door for security risks and vulnerabilities, which make security is an important concern. Since mobile devices can contain vast amounts of sensitive and personal information, they are attractive targets that provide unique opportunities for criminal’s intent on exploiting them.
In the current corporate environment, mobile devices such as mobile phones and tables have a great impact on the business process of companies and how employees can perform and fulfil everyday tasks. Companies are adopting the BYOD (bring your own device) policy for management of these devices. To protect sensitive data, employees, and customer, companies must have a policy in place to enable an effective and secure use of these devices. Using mobile devices without having a clear policy and without defining the company’s valuable assets that need protection is bad business and opens up unnecessary risk.
Hacking In the Business Society From history we can observer that "human society" is easily influenced, and often mislead. There is a near endless amount of examples for this, ranging from the Suicidal Sect leaders (David Koresh http://www.rickross.com/reference/waco/waco321.html ), to mad dictators, with aspirations of taking over the world. This human susceptibility of being easily mislead, is clearly apparent when dealing with the issue of "Hacking", and "Hacking In the Business Society". The movie industry has played a great role in misinforming society of who a hacker is, and what they can do.
Many companies in United States and around the world have started to worry about the iPhone usage and how much they are becoming dependent by organizations in order to conduct their business. Landman (2010) stated, “The threat from accidental or malicious misuse by employees is a significant threat to business” (p. 14). For this reason, using an iPhone in the workplace is putting companies on alert because the owner of the iPhone can store volatile information about their place where they work. Any information about the company such as e-mails, photos, and other digital evidence used in the work place could be sent to their competitors and used against the company itself and these are real life dangers in the corporate world.
IN 2015 a gunman named Syed Farook had shot and killed 14 people in San Bernarda in the summer of 2016 the FBI asked apple if they could hack into Farooks iPhone. Apple refused, but the FBI hacked into the 1phone without their help. Of course, the FBI caught the gunman, but it brought controversy should the FBI be able to hack into iPhones? And no they shouldn’t! It breaks countless laws if they didn’t have a warrant. But if the FBI has a warrant, then whose Phone are they are searching and is apple helping. Apple did choose the right thing to do, not to hack into an iPhone, if apple would hack into an iPhone then they would be breaking the constitution and it is not necessary.
The article, found in The Wall Street Journal, “Consumer-Privacy Companies Woo Business Companies” by Elizabeth Dwoskin, gives us a brief overlook at how more products are aiming toward the protection of consumers’ privacy. On March 2nd, Silent Circle announced the release of their Blackphone as an enterprise product. The Blackphone is an android phone announced last year that aims at giving its consumers total privacy. It accomplishes this by encrypting all data stored by voice or text message. Additionally calls and data are sent through virtual private networks not through the Internet. In doing so it grants ultimate protection for the user by insuring that no information can get hacked into because it has never been connected to the Internet. Although this product was already released last year, this year the company is pursuing businesses to use it as solely a company-use phone. With about 40% of people using their personal phones for business, major companies are put at risk of losing significant information. Silent Circle’s products are able to give ease to this possibility. Over recent years, consumers have been putting a greater emphasis on online privacy. An increasing amount of users are purchasing privacy-protecting programs designed to protect personal information stored in computers. With recent hacks to major companies, businesses are also increasing their cyber security. Experts predict that the spending on cyber security product will increase to $83.2
Do users think spying on your smartphone is impossible or hard? Of course, spying through social engineering risk, but what about if users have no idea that they are being watched? When connected to a PC, smartphones no authentication. They are USB devices that can give up all data that is stored in them. If accessed by the wrong hacker, he or she could install malware that can store all of user events and upload them onto an Excel sheet. Scary? The same is true with SMS text messaging. A hacker sends an SMS message to the user. When the message is opened it installs the spyware onto the smartphone. Now the hacker can read and access all of the user messages.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in the article Cyber Threats to Mobile Phones, phones are now sharing hardware and software similar to a PC and becoming each time more like a PC. Therefore, the risks of being hacked are increasing, allowing hackers to attack mobile devices the same way as if they were doing it with a regular PC. Personal and professional information are more often stored on mobile devices therefore it is imperative to have our data secure. Security solutions for mobile devices are not as broad or high-tech as those for PCs. The majority of mobile security relies on the proper use and smart choices that the user makes on a daily basis to be protected against cyber attacks. Even the most careful person can be attacked but the possibilities of that happening are less when you are proactive.
As the world becomes more and more reliant on computers the computer hacking industry is greatly rising. With people such as Kevin Mitnick, who is known as a "computer terrorist" (Kjochaiche 1), computerized information isn't safe any more. Kevin is known as "the most high-profiled computer criminal and responsible for more havoc in the computer world today."(1) He considered this a fun and easy task. He got caught and thrown into prison, but once he got out nothing changed. Kevin stated that as long as the technology is there it just calls to people to break into it. Computer hackers usually start off young, thinking that it is nothing but a little harmless fun. But as they get older, they realize it has turned into
Hacking is the process of gaining unauthorized access to information through various means like systems or computers. In the context of computer security, a hacker is that person who looks for weakness in a system so that they can gain access to unauthorized information. They are motivated by various reasons like protest, profits or evaluating the entire system weaknesses.
New technology has spurred innovative ways to spend money. As mobile payment systems continually develop, consumer financial and personal information risk exposure. Industry officials state the technology is growing, but security specialists argue growth of will inevitably attract fraud. Smartphone owners must treat their phones as a miniature computer and equip proper anti-virus and malware software. Enacting preventative methods will help thwart security breaches over mobile networks. (Ladendorf, 2013)
With the rapid growth of mobile computing, mobile device become a necessary tool in our daily life. Without mobile device our life quality, efficiency will totally decrease. Users just need to connect to network and gather information they want in a few second. Although mobile devices bring us convenient, mobile devices contain large amount of personal data, including emails, photos, contact data, financial, and medical information, privacy issue [1] occur due to users unknowingly expose their privacy through mobile application, camera, network etc. and their use poses a serious threat to both personal and corporate security. It greatly extending the reach of technology and raising concerns that prevailing traditions of privacy may be challenged.
Quite a few questions were asked mainly to identify how sensitive and the kind of information that are stored in participants’ smartphones. The results showed that forty percent of our interviewees were concerned about attackers accessing their smartphones for their pictures. It also indicated that participants sent pictures on their WhatsApp application without any concerns about the security implications. Only twenty percent admitted having backups of their data while a lot more about seventy percent really cared about systematic backups of their data.
For devices such as iPhones and iPads, a major threat to those devices would be Malicious Mobile Applications. This type of hacking can be rather