Here is a question I have heard a lot over the years. The answer is ... meh I dunno. No OS on the market tells us tech guys what is causing the lag, power cycle, or just random crash you are experiencing on your phone. So if anyone has told you the smartphone in your hands is being destroyed by malware, they really don't know. Below I have linked a great article Lookout Mobile Security just published. I advise people to read it, especially if you use Android.
Be cautious this is a security company that wants you to use their product, but I recommend them to Android users when I am not working. So why is this article so important? Well, 30% of people that use the browser on their smartphone click an unsafe link. And for those apps you download the numbers are getting worse and worse every day. The U.S. is looking at 2% of apps falling under the malware, spyware category.
So, I am going to give everyone a rundown of what this means for your phones.
What happened to all the color? All they use is gray now.
Apple
Not too much worry here. Your apps are sand boxed and are not allowed to play with other apps in most situations. Great to here right? Wrong! Safari is not a safe browser and does have openings that hackers can exploit.
A special note to all y'all jailbreakers out there (you know who you are). If you side load apps that are not approved by the iOS market you may be at higher risk. For instance, you download a 3rd party messaging app that has access to your keyboard. That's right keystroke logger. Now all your personal conversations are recorded and uploaded to some hacker's server without you knowing because text files are so small and you would never notice.
Yes, Microsoft still has a mobile OS
Windows Phone 7
Right now, much like iOS, Microsoft sandboxes your apps so they play alone. This will be changing a bit with the next OS update this fall, but for now your 3rd party apps are pretty darn safe.
Heavy warning for the browser heavy users here. Internet Explorer is the hacker communities playpen. Not because it's easy to hack, but more because everyone wants to hack it. IE9 has shown far better security, but you will not see this upgrade until the update later this year.
Now, a small population may have done something called Chevroning your phone (this is just like jailbreaking an iPhone). You guys have the same scary scenarios as iOS, but probably more likely to see it happen.
Blackberry...where did you go?
Blackberry
Do you guys even have apps? Well, if you do, rest assure RIM is the best at securing their OS and does a great job at policing it. I ask you to be cautious with their future devices though. Blackberry uses all java based apps which do have holes, especially in the browser. Although RIM does a great job of policing these apps, the future looks less defined because they will start running Android based apps on their phones and tablets.
The open platform for me to poop on
Android
Oh boy, where to begin. If you use an Android phone just make sure you backup as much info as regularly as you can and pray a lot. You are almost guaranteed to have some app try to get ad generated info from you. What's bad is most the time you agree to let them. One thing I will give Google credit for is that their browsers tend to be pretty secure. Probably because hackers can easily just make an app to do all the work.
If you use an Android phone I urge you to be smart about what you download and do not download apps by USB unless you are absolutely sure it is safe.
So what to do if you think something has infected your device. Well, hard reset your phone. This means wipe that sucker clean and make sure all your contacts and other important info is backed up somewhere. Honestly, even wiping your phone may not solve the problem. People using Blackberry and iOS have ways of reloading their software from scratch, but Android or Windows Phone users would have to use more resources to reload their OS because the carrier or manufacturer won't be able to provide it.
oh, she just found out her iPhone can get spyware
I will leave you with just one positive note here. Most of the malicious software we download on our phones really isn't that bad. A lot of it is just to help revenue from ads, or report stats that maybe you just don't like giving out. Yes, there are developers trying to get credit card info or password. So just be smart, and if the app looks crappy it is crappy. I
