The No. 1 threat to the sensitive data stored on your handheld device or smart phone remains physically losing the device, but other threats are looming on the handheld horizon. "When you send a defective PDA to the manufacturer for tech support, they usually give you a new one and then resell the old one," said John Girard, vice president and research director at Gartner Inc. "Buying dead machines is an ideal method of pursuing identity theft." What's more, 90% of mobile devices lack the protection necessary to ward off hackers, according to a recent strategic planning assumption conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner. . . .. The No. 1 threat to the sensitive data stored on your handheld device or smart phone remains physically losing the device, but other threats are looming on the handheld horizon. "When you send a defective PDA to the manufacturer for tech support, they usually give you a new one and then resell the old one," said John Girard, vice president and research director at Gartner Inc. "Buying dead machines is an ideal method of pursuing identity theft." What's more, 90% of mobile devices lack the protection necessary to ward off hackers, according to a recent strategic planning assumption conducted by Stamford, Conn.-based Gartner. "Most devices have IrDA, Bluetooth and wireless connections, and many of them aren't set up properly. You can just walk around with a connected device of your own and see what you can find," Girard said. Even if there are security settings activated by default on a device, users will often turn them off if they find them unintuitive to use, he said. "Security needs to be as transparent as possible to users," Girard said. Malicious Code While security researchers have developed "proof of concept" viruses for handheld devices and smart phones, nothing has been seen yet "in the wild," said David Perry, global director of education at antivirus developer Trend Micro Inc. in Cupertino, Calif. "E-mail is easier. It's universal, and PDAs aren't." The link for thisarticle located at computerworld.com is no longer available. . Delve into the primary risks facing your mobile devices and learn strategies to safeguard valuable information efficiently.. Handheld Security, Mobile Device Protection, Identity Theft Risks, Smart Phone Security, Data Safety. . Anthony Pell
The first known Trojan horse aimed at handhelds struck late last week. A Trojan horse is a malicious program that appears to be legitimate, which is often attached to free gaming software. Trojan horses can locate password information, make systems more susceptible to future entry, or sabotage data on a user's hard disk.. . .. The first known Trojan horse aimed at handhelds struck late last week. A Trojan horse is a malicious program that appears to be legitimate, which is often attached to free gaming software. Trojan horses can locate password information, make systems more susceptible to future entry, or sabotage data on a user's hard disk. Developed by a software programmer, the Liberty Crack program, as the Palm Trojan horse is now known, appeared as a free version of Gambit Studios LLC's Liberty GameBoy emulation software for the Palm. Once Liberty Crack executes, it could delete all of the applications on a Palm device. Trojan horses typically mimic legitimate programs but do not replicate themselves. The link for this article located at CNN is no longer available. . First known Trojan horse targeting handhelds causes serious risks. Learn about malware's impact and prevention tactics.. Handheld Device Security, Malware Threats, Gaming Software Risks. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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