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Criminals target social networks

BBC Online: Smartphones and social networking sites are likely to become the next big target for cyber criminals, according to a security industry report. Symantec's annual threat analysis warns that the technologies are increasingly being used to spread malicious code. Users of Facebook, Twitter and Google's mobile operating system, Android, are said to be particularly vulnerable. However, the number of attacks remains small compared to other online crimes such as e-mail phishing. According to Symantec, known vulnerabilities in mobile operating systems rose from 115 in 2009 to 163 in 2010. In several cases, the security holes were exploited and used to install harmful software on Android handsets - suggesting that criminals now view smartphone hacking as a potentially lucrative area. At least six different varieties of malware were discovered hidden in applications that were distributed through a Chinese download service. "It is something we have started to see happen, albeit on a small level," said Orla Cox, security operations manager at Symantec. "It allows people to do a variety of things from intercepting SMS messages to dialling toll numbers. They have opened up the possibility of what is there." Several pieces of malware were also found on iPhones, however only devices that had been "jailbroken" to bypass Apple's security were affected.