Smartphones Twice as Dangerous as USB Flash Drives When It Comes to Corporate and Personal Safety
Very Real Possibilities of Having Your Personal Information Hacked from Your Smartphone This Summer
Huntsville, Alabama, May 28, 2015 (Newswire.com) - ChargeDefense, a pioneer manufacturer in mobile charging devices, today published a special alert on the current state of smartphone data security.
In the past couple of years identity thieves and hackers have become even more sophisticated, shifting their attention to mobile devices. Alcatel-Lucent’s Kindsight Security Labs report states that mobile malware infections grew 20% in 2013 and another 25% in 2014 with estimates of 18 million infected smartphones and growing quickly...[1] In 2014, Microsoft further showed that 5 out of 10 malware instances were worms spread by USB removable drives.[2] … and revealed that malware infections via USB storage devices were responsible for 26% of the total infection rate.[3]
The article goes on to discuss protocols of many IT departments prohibiting USB flash drives yet allowing smartphone, a USB device, to still connect. The article further connects corporate enterprise hacking successes to USB-connected smartphones.
However, education, training and policies might not prevent an employee with a 5% charge left on their phone from plugging it into a USB port on his work. This small and harmless act can bring down an entire network if lurking malware on the phone can circumvent policies intended to thwart it. In fact, that is how the majority of USB Enterprise security breaches happen…
Simply implementing policies to disallow USB connections is not 100% effective. A combination of education and training, port blockers, and power-only charging solutions [like the Juice-Jack Defender] is an inexpensive, practical way to keep honest employees from infecting your enterprise and exposing corporate and personal information to the bad guys.
The entire article and the infographic on “Types of Mobile Malware” can be found at ChargeDefense.com and available for syndication with attribution. In addition, ChargeDefense has posted an animated video to demonstrate how this hacking can occur with the real world example of 2010’s Stuxnet virus.
[1] Motive Security Labs malware report H2 2014, Alcatel-Lucent, 2014
[2] Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 17, January – June 2014
[3] Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 11, January-June, 2011
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