Whether you are ordering food online, booking a doctor’s appointment, or checking your balance, you are doing it through your phone. For many years we believed that we had a valid reason to trust our phone with sensitive information.
Today, we have to acknowledge that this isn’t completely true and examine the risks inherent in our mobile devices. Looking ahead to 2022, these are the threats to be on the lookout for.
DATA LEAKS
Accepting a website’s data mining request is accepting a risk. To paraphrase the old idiom “You are only as secure as the weakest site”.
Originally websites didn’t have to request to record and store your data but, with Android 11 and IOS 14, users can choose which permission requests they would like to accept.
To practice the best digital hygiene, only allow websites to use necessary cookies and always avoid suspect sites.
MALWARE MASQUERADING AS UPDATES
Updating your OS and applications ensures that you are minimizing bugs and potential weak points on your phone.
Unfortunately, this good habit also has the potential to introduce malware onto your device.
A recent Android threat will open up a random application called System Update. Installing it will infect your device and give remote control to threat actors.
MALWARE VIA SMS MESSAGING
SMS messaging presents an opportunity for threat actors to use social engineering to their advantage. By sending links from numbers masquerading as personal contacts threat actors can introduce malware to your device.
One recent trend is a link encouraging the user to download an Adobe Flash update. Once downloaded the malware will take control of certain applications and steal your data.
The best prevention against this is frequent legitimate OS updates and only opening links from trusted contacts.
