Smart Phones Susceptible

Technology Review has a new article showing just how careful smart phone users need to be in the future.

The smart phone is quickly becoming an indispensable journalism tool that allows thousands of journalists to do things ranging from rapidly communicating with one another to recording video or audio for stories. But like knives, saws or hammers, tools can also end up harming those who use them.

The problem lies in how new the phone technology is in a general sense. Serious, wide-spread security issues have never been that large of a problem before. This, coupled with the technology's growing popularity, is creating interest in the hacking/spamming/malware community. While the phones do have quite a few built-in defenses, a stray app or two can be all that is needed to open up the floodgates to infection.

If the phone becomes infected one of the prevalent fears is that it will become part of a botnet, a group of devices working together to spread spam and other malicious activity by receiving instructions from a central location and obeying them like a "zombie," the user completely unaware. Since this infection leaves very few clues about its presence it can be a costly problem for many people who use their phones for secure activity (i.e. bank transfers). Imagine the problems a journalist might face if a contact list of confidential sources is leaked to the public or put on the Internet for any to see.

Unfortunately, with shiny new tools come important responsibilities. Users of these technologies need to be aware, be safe and be smart about what they do with their wireless devices. At this stage of the Technological Age "I didn't know" can no longer fly.

Photo credit: Creative Commons