Report Warns of High Hacking Risk for Smartphones in 2020
A report released by accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton entitled “Cyber Trends in 2019 and Predictions for 2020” notes that Smartphones may face an increased risk of hacking in the coming year. The report was compiled using statistics about device vulnerabilities and used the advancement of technology as a basis, suggesting that faster connections would also result in more efficient hacking processes.
Worrying Figures
The report notes that cybercrimes, inclusive of cyberbullying, have increased six-fold throughout 2019 as compared with the previous year. Data analytics may be useful in predicting and stopping these issues before they start impacting humans, but systems would have to be trained to do so. The report also mentions that there was a 54% increase in mobile phone breaches. It goes further to state that the incidence of hacks will be focused on mobile banking solutions in 2020, and the development of new technology such as 5G and IoT devices will only make it easier for malicious actors to gain access to your smartphone.
What is even more concerning is that the report found that nine out of every ten breaches occurred because of human error. The report suggests that human-centric solutions should be the concern going forward, not just device-centric security measures. Throughout 2019, 4.3 billion records were breached, with 71% of those attacks being focused on financial information the user may have had on their phones.
Staying a Step Ahead
As will all types of cybersecurity, it’s a race against the other side. Smartphone users need to be more aware of the software they install on their phones. Security measures are only as reasonable as the users that implement them. Today’s smartphones carry the responsibility of keeping their users’ financial information safely as well as all their other data. Protecting against data breaches should be the user’s primary concern.
