Mobile Security Threats and How to Prevent Them

There are undoubtedly many reasons people cannot go on about their day without their phones. Many use it for entertainment such as games, social media, and even business. In truth, employees no longer strictly rely on desktop computers and laptops as mobile devices have become an increasingly crucial component of their daily work operations.

The surge of remote work due to the coronavirus pandemic made these devices the most convenient choice for employees to collaborate with colleagues and clients. The increased reliance on smartphones also resulted in the rise of many applications and their growing capabilities, proving the advancement of such devices, whichwere limited to texting, calling, taking photos, and playing simple games. 

However, mobile devices carry significant security threats, which is a primary concern now that such devices are becoming critical infrastructure for companies. From 2017 to 2018, mobile phone account takeovers increased by 78.6%. Accordingly, Kaspersky detected an average of 360,000 malicious files a day, many of which target mobile devices in 2020. In the same year, high-profile victims in the United States lost over USD100 million in cryptocurrencies due to SIM-swapping attacks.

The issue with mobile phones is more alarming, considering cybercriminals are becoming more sophisticated in committing fraudulent activities, and scams are getting more elaborate. Without a robust security measure like digital identity verification, organizations might become a victim of the mobile security threats should they fail to take into account the following:

• Network Spoofing
• Phishing Attack
• Spyware 
• Mobile Account Takeover
• Out-of-date Mobile Systems
• Poor Phone Security

As mobile phones are considered to be as indispensable as computers in accessing systems and finishing work tasks, many criminals target these devices as they have multiple vulnerabilities. Fortunately, there are ways to prevent mobile security threats, and one of the things that organizations have to consider is strong customer authentication solutions.

The FIDO2 or Fast Identity Online protocol eliminates the use of traditional passwords over the internet and removes any weaknesses they create. Additionally, following this standard, people no longer need to input usernames and passwords for identity verification. 

Do you want to learn more about the topic? Visit LoginID’s website.