With all the attention surrounding the battle between Apple and the FBI, you'd think it would be a difficult task to crack into an iPhone. While in theory it is, there is one factor that makes it easy for crooks to steal your information. Put simply, that factor is you. Most of the time, when a phone is hacked there is usually an operator error, such as downloading phishing links, connecting to unsecure WiFI, or falling for a malicious app.
In a bring your own device (BYOD) workplace, criminals are seeing dollar signs. If you need proof look no further than a new report by Crowd Research which found that one in five organizations suffered a mobile security breach last year. The report also found that around half of organizations had no idea if corporate devices had connected to malicious WiFi. Considering that the global BYOD market is expected to reach $360 billion by 2020, security has to take a front seat or we're in for a long ride.
At SecureWorld Boston on March 29-30, members of the Check Point Software Technologies team demonstrated just how quick and easy it is for a criminal to take over a phone. Nuno Sousa and Kenny Mancuso started the process by purposely downloading an application that came from a phishing link in an email. The malicious app then immediately began collecting information. Sousa and Mancuso were able to pull up the phone's location and even tap into the microphone to listen to conversations. The scary part? This all took under 5 minutes to accomplish.
As criminals and threats evolve, corporations must follow suit; otherwise businesses are less than 5-minutes away from a data breach. The average cost for a mobile breach? More than $250 thousand.
