As the ‘Work From Home’ and ‘Bring Your Own Device’ culture has gained popularity, organizations have increased their attention towards mobile security. Most employees routinely access organizational data from their personal mobile devices, cyber criminals also try to gain on this opportunity. So, organizations have to keep their employees informed about major cyber security concerns that can be woven around smartphones.

Here are some major cyber security concerns of smartphone users:

  • Data Leakage: Data leakage refers to unauthorized transfer of data from within an organization’s systems to an external destination or recipient. It is one of the most bothersome cyber security threats for enterprises. In order to combat the issue of data leakage, organizations need to implement an app vetting process that does not overwhelm the administrator and does not frustrate the users as well. However, this doesn’t help in taking care of data leakage resulting from user error such as transferring company files onto public cloud, copying confidential information to a wrong place, forwarding an email to unintended recipient, etc.
  • Social Engineering: It is a manipulation technique that exploits user error to gain private information, unauthorized access, etc. These scams are also known as ‘human hacking’ scams because these scams work by luring unsuspecting users into exposing data, spreading malware infections, or giving access to restricted systems. Social engineering scams usually aim at theft of information as well as sabotaging organization’s reputation by disrupting or corrupting data. Common examples of social engineering attacks include phishing attacks, baiting attacks, physical breach, pre-texting attacks, access tail-gaiting attacks, quid pro quo attacks, scareware attacks, etc.
  • Wi-Fi Interference: A mobile device is secure only in case the network through which data is transmitted is secure. Cyber criminals find an array of ways to intercept the transmission. Some of the tactics include setting up fake Wi-Fi networks, intercepting communications transferred across public networks, etc. Organizations can combat this issue by motivating users to download and make use of VPN.
  • Cryptojacking Attacks: Cryptojacking is a type of attack where cyber criminals use victim’s device for mining cryptocurrency without victim’s knowledge. The cryptomining process relies on the user’s resources such as mobile device processor, network, data, storage, etc. This reduces the performance level of the mobile device.

For more information on cyber security concerns of smartphone users, contact Centex Technologies at (254) 213 – 4740.