One of the reasons for the change of name of column “security to the PC” to “Digital Security” is the migration of threats: are no longer only on PC. Users of smartphones running Android or Symbian have available a variety of security software and services, trackers and other anti-theft functions. There is also the traditional antivirus.
Since these “smart” phones are increasingly common, the natural tendency is that viruses appear for these platforms. But the situation today is different from that in which were the PCs when the virus began to appear with the popularization of computers. Despite the million mobile phones in operation, the threat is still very small. http://torpedogratis.info/dicas/antivirus-para-celular.html
iPhone
Antivirus for iPhone also were created – ironically, rogue antivirus for users that made jailbreak to install software outside of Apple’s App Store. That is, the “protection” promised was often masked a malicious program.
Antivirus companies are interested in Apple’s platform, but today one of the reasons leading to the installation of security software on mobile phones are the company rules. Many companies have security policy to install an antivirus on any computerized system that can have one – be it a computer, a laptop or a cell phone. These companies are not going to use an iPhone with jailbreak and therefore cut most of the risk and the incentive to install an antivirus.
Even so, the security software remains interesting to manage these internal policies, ensuring that employee’s iPhone is not modified in a manner contrary to the rules of the company. Only one authenticated iPhone will be able to log in to the company’s internal system.
Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile
The situation in mobile phones with Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile and Nokia’s Symbian, is more complicated. Symbian is the mobile platform with more viruses in existence; the most common are the viruses that infect the device, send SMS to Premium numbers torpedoes. Are torpedoes that will cost and part of the amount paid to the owner of the number belongs-the criminal. In some countries this type of attack is very common, usually because the telecommunications industry is poorly regulated and allows this abuse of Premium numbers (also known as 0900 numbers).
Android has faced many problems and dollars. Unlike the iPhone, Android allows installing applications out of the Market. This means that a criminal can create a malicious application for Android, available on the internet and throw some campaign, via email, SMS or poisoning research, to promote his creation. Nevertheless, malicious programs already managed to get into the Android Market. The explanation for this is the psychological factor involved in the approval of applications.
As the number of legitimate apps is much larger than the malicious apps – mainly because the criminal does not have to go through approval of the Market – the evaluators can easily be “mechanized” by never find anything and approve without fear that they will be correct 100% of the time apparently. The malicious application that go through the process will not be detected. If more malicious applications are sent to market, it will all be done with more care; Today the work seems useless most of the time, since the malicious apps are very rare.
But the Android does not depend on the market. During the installation of the application, the user is informed about the permissions the app requires to run on the phone. On this screen you can identify strange behavior. For example, an application that will perform a function of location needs to send an SMS or make telephone calls? This is a protection that simply did not exist-and still does not exist with the same ease-on desktops.
The mobile virus scenario is different and that is why, in spite of huge user base, the risk remains low. IDC data suggest that 300 million smartphones were sold in 2010. Even so, there are only two thousand viruses, according to the manufacturer of Kaspersky Antivirus.
The availability of security programs for cell phones can make a user thinking that the problem exists and is common-but this is not the case, at least not yet. Those who take care of everything to install, refuse files that receive Bluetooth randomly (a big risk especially in Symbian) and check the permissions requested by apps on Android will hardly be the target of an attack.
For now, the attacks are so rare that even the effectiveness of antivirus is debatable. In business, a model in which only authorized applications can be executed is functional.
Mobile market is a growing industry with a fast pace for new features and technology. See more interesting news at Read Full Report website and find the latest developments in the telecom business.