McAfee identifies new ways of hacking

Study report said fraudsters use bad apps to steal identities, commit financial fraud, breach privacy on mobile devices

McAfee today released the results of its Mobile Security: McAfee Consumer Trends Report, documenting sophisticated and complex risky apps containing multi-faceted scams, black market crimes, drive-by downloads and near-field communication threats.

The report identifies a new wave of techniques hackers use to steal digital identities, commit financial fraud, and invade users’ privacy on mobile devices.

Mobile platforms have become increasingly attractive to cyber criminals as consumers live more of their digital lives on smartphones and tablets.

McAfee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation engaged in empowering businesses, public sector and home users to safely experience the benefits of the Internet.

According to IDC, mobile devices are surpassing PCs as the preferred way to access the Internet and the number of people using PCs to go online will shrink by 15 million over the next four years, while the number of mobile users will increase by 91 million.

With the mobile space becoming a more enticing platform for online mischief, the complexity and volume of threats targeting consumers will continue to increase. Using its extensive global threat intelligence network (GTI), McAfee Labs analysed mobile security data from the last three quarters.

“Despite elevated consumer awareness of threats on mobile platforms, there is still a significant knowledge gap surrounding how and when devices become infected and the level of potential damage,” said Luis Blando, vice president of mobile product development at McAfee.

“Cyber criminals are exhibiting greater levels of determination and sophistication leading to more destructive, multi-faceted hacks that are harder to spot, and thus warrant a greater degree of security and vigilance. Our goal in releasing this report is to help consumers understand the risks they face and learn ways they can stay safe and compute with confidence on all of their devices.”

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