Mobile malware: only four percent protect themselves

Security for smartphones and tablets on the way to the billion-dollar market

Smartphones and tablets are all the rage among users, but the right security software is not. According to the analyst firm Juniper Research in a recent study, an additional protection solution is currently only running on four percent of mobile devices. "Users are not yet as aware of the dangers that lurk on mobile devices as they are of the same dangers on the PC," Juniper analyst Nitin Bhas told press release.

Even an architecture like that of Apple's iOS cannot protect against all risks. "In order to create a secure environment for the end user, you need operating system security plus third-party solutions," clarifies Bhas. He therefore predicts that the mobile security market will grow to a volume of 2016 billion dollars by 3,5 - initially driven by corporate customers.

smartphones

Smartphones: So far mostly unprotected (Photo: flickr.com, Miki Yoshihito)

Dangers everywhere

Google's Android has already made negative headlines through contaminated apps in the official marketplace. That shouldn't happen with the comparatively isolated iOS. "With the sheer number of Apple devices, iOS is becoming very attractive to malware writers," warns Bhas. Because potentially fire-threatening security gaps can never be completely ruled out, as JailbreakMe 2.0 proved last summer. In addition, malware is only part of the problem.

"It is important to be clear about the fact that the Internet remains the same Internet, regardless of whether you access it from a smartphone or laptop," emphasizes the Juniper analyst. No matter how secure iOS or another mobile operating system is - it cannot prevent many threats such as phishing. More and more users are accessing e-mails and websites with their smartphones and are also carrying out online transactions. Juniper comes to the conclusion in the report "Mobile Security Opportunities" that security software is just as indispensable as it is on the desktop.

Business pioneer

"We believe mobile security products will become a mainstream market by the end of 2013," said Bhas. For 2016, the analyst firm expects that corresponding solutions will run on 277 million smartphones and tablets. More than two thirds of the product purchases will therefore be made by companies. Because for them, risks such as unauthorized system and resource access or the theft of confidential data are a much more important issue than for the average end customer - even though the latter will increasingly recognize the need for protection software for their smartphones and tablets.

Product providers undoubtedly have the opportunity to accelerate this process through appropriate marketing strategies and thereby secure a market advantage. One example is G Data http://www.gdata.de , which offers customers of its current Windows product range the MobileSecurity for Android as a free extra. "It is a very promising concept to bundle mobile protection as a free addition to the PC security suite - that can bind existing customers more strongly and also attract new ones," says Bhas.

(ck) 16.06.2011

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