Mobile phone virus fears on the rise, according to McAfee

72% of mobile consumers are worried about the security of such mobile services as multimedia downloads and mobile payments, according to a survey of 2000 people by McAfee. Respondents in the 2008 McAfee Mobile Security Report were spread across the US, UK and Japan, and among the key findings were...

• 86% of users are worried about security risks posed to their mobile handset such as fraudulent bill increases or information loss or theft
• 34% of global mobile users question the general safety of mobile devices and services
• 79% of consumers are knowingly using unprotected devices
• 59% hold mobile operators responsible for security measures
• 38.6% claim to typically receive spam messages at least once a month
• 14% of global mobile users have already been exposed to mobile virus incidents, either directly or they know someone who has been infected.

The survey, while an obvious bit of marketing for McAfee’s mobile security products, does raise some interesting points. Mobile and smartphone viruses are still in their relative infancy, thanks largely to the lack of an effective vector by which they can spread.

With the increasing spread of sophisticated handsets, with even entry-level devices now capable of internet access and downloading executable files, mobile devices will soon be subject to the same kind of attacks that PC users have been trying to fend off for decades.

So, it looks like mobile users will soon need to pay as much attention to the security of their handheld devices as they do their PCs. For most people, of course, that means downloading and installing any old crap and them complaining to the network operatorabout problems with their handsets.

[McAfee]