Apple iPhone Could Be More Vulnerable Than Many May Think
So, are smartphones safe? When you're trolling around on your favorite sites on your iPhone, are you wondering about that email you just got from some unknown source? Well apparently that's a pretty big concern now a days, and Trend Micro decided to produce a survey that would help shed some light on it. Their results are pretty revealing, and although Apple-based computers are relatively safeer than, say, their Windows-based counterparts, does the popularity of the iPhone make it a concern that some of us are just ignoring?
The survey, conducted by Trend Micro, took in 1,000 smartphone users 18 years or older. According to the survey, iPhone users are far more likely to use their phone's web browser, spend more time shopping, visit media-sharing websites, and receive larger amounts of email, which can lead to links within the messages that the user will follow. Trend Micro believes that hackers and other malicious individuals are drawn to the iPhone because of this fact. The survey also added that 44% of people think that browsing on their phone is as safe, if not safter than browsing the internet on their home PCs. Apparently only 23% of users utilize security software readily available to them, and that one out of five participants believe that adding any kind of extra software would not help anything.
Of all the users questions, 20% of them have been impacted by some kind of phishing scam or another. The likely candidate is via email, where the user could have followed a link to a site that stole financial information, names/passwords, and other personal information. There have been security flaws with the iPhone and its firmware versions in the past, but this seems a bit broad. Phishing scams do not seem to be necessarily aimed at iPhone users, or iPod Touch users for that matter. While we may agree that the popularity of the iPhone may lead to future threats, directed at the iPhone itself and any information therein, but for now it looks like this survey was just a warning against opening unknown emails, on any device.
[via Electronista]