With more and more smartphones coming into the market with e-mail and data services, cyber criminals are increasingly targeting cellphones.
In the last one year, 17 per cent of Indians online have faced some form of cyber-attack on their phones. Mobile vulnerabilities went up by 42 per cent from 115 in 2009 to 163 in 2010, says a latest Symantec Internet security threat report.
Computer security expert Ankit Fadia said, “With most young people constantly sharing music, files and photos, criminals are now creating virus-infected mobile apps,” he added.
The number of cyber-crime victims across the country went up to about 30 million last year with losses amounting to $3.6 billion. Globally, cyber-crime frauds account for a whopping $114 billion every year, stated the Norton Cyber crime Report 2011.
Fourteen people are targeted by cyber criminals every second around the world and in India, four out of five people who are online are victims of cyber-crime.
However, Gaurav Kanwal of Symantec said that despite such threats, practices such as using data security software, regular review of credit card statements for fraud, using and changing complex passwords were still uncommon among Indians.
M. Sudhakar of the cyber crime cell, Chennai police, said, “With 3G and smartphones, this shift in focus was expected. But basic security measures should be taken and people should have some kind of restraint while sharing info on these gadgets.”