Your smartphone could be a tool for terrorists or cyber criminals

Have you purchased a new android phone or the latest model of the smart phone? Welcome to the vulnerable world of the Indian mobile phone users, where your phone can be misused by terrorists or cyber criminals by hacking into your smart phone. Smishing, the latest entry in the cyber crime is a new threat for the smart phone users.

It is nothing but the mobile phone variant of a phishing attack, usually seen through the emails on your computers. Experts believe that it is very easy to access not only your phone number, but everything that is saved in your phone through Smishing. "Be it your phone contacts, your photos, passwords, your folders or anything that your phone can do will be accessed by the hacker," Gaurav Kanwal, country sales manager, India & SAARC, Symantec told DNA on the sidelines an event in Ahmedabad.
Kanwal said that currently, a sample study conducted by Symantec reveals that 17% of total mobile phone users are victims of mobile smishing, and most of them had occurred due to downloading of applications.  

Mobile users are increasing at a rapid speed and the cyber criminals, including the cyber terrorists are not away from targeting the smart phones. Kanwal said that the different applications downloaded by the smart phone users is the most vulnerable point from where one can get the control of your mobile phone.

A cyber expert said that SMS (Short Massaging Service) and MMS (Multimedia Massaging Service) are emerging as new vectors for spam and phishing activity. "SMS attacks or "Smishing" is an attack that comes through a SMS onto a smartphone and sometimes even to a cell phone also," he said.

"The SMS comes with a link, clicking on which causes the virus to be installed on the mobile phone and which will give access of your phone to some other users," the expert said.